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HENNY AND PENNY 


BY THE SAME AUTHOR 


DUCKY DADDLES’ PARTY 

DUCKY DADDLES AND THE THREE BEARS 

lllustratid from photographs by th* author 

Two charming books about Ducky Daddies and his 
friends; Sally, the rag doll; Becky, the doll with real 
curls; and Araminta. 


E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 



























HENNY AND PENNY 


BY 

BERTHA PARKER HALL 

Author of “Ducky Paddles’ Party,’* etc. 



ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
RUTH CLEMENTS FARRELL 


NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

68t Fifth Avenue 


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Copyright, 1922, 

BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 




All rights reserved 



©CI.A6S6627 


raiNTED IN THE TUTTED STATES OF AMEEIOA 

NOV -2 192k 

/. 


To 


A P. H. 


and 


M. M. H. 


from 


B. P. H. 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAOB 

I. The Birthday l 

II. The Chicken Pox .... 20 

III. Digging Through to China . 39 

IV. Meeting Sylvia 50 

V. Under the Oak Tree . . . 59 

VI. Spring 67 

VII. Summer in the Country . . 75 

VIII. Bare Feet 90 

IX. Rose-Heart 94 

X. David's Fish Pond .... 104 
XI. The Chestnut Men . . . .111 

XII. Circus Day 120 

XIII. Thanksgiving 128 

XIV. Snow 140 

XV. Christmas Shopping .... 149 

XVI. Christmas 160 

ix 



HENNY AND PENNY 


















5 



HENNY AND PENNY 

CHAPTER I 

THE BIRTHDAY 

H ENNY and Penny were twins; 

they were four years old on the 
same day. Their birthday was exactly 
the same, their clothes were just the same 
and their toys were the same, yet they 
themselves were very different. 

Henny’s real name was Henrietta, 
while Penny’s right name was Penelope, 
still no one ever dreamed of calling them 

by those long names. They were too 
1 


2 


HENNY AND PENNY 


little and cunning and round and dimpled 
for that! They had just xme brother. 
His name was David and he was seven 
years old. He was ever so much taller 
than Henny and Penny and they thought 
he was quite grown up. 

This story begins on the twins’ birth- 
day. It was a cold March day and of 
course the first thing to happen was that 
when they woke up they were kissed and 
spanked by every one in the house. 
They ran around in their nighties with 
feet in them, looking like two little blue 
bears, and I can tell you they felt much 
bigger and older than they did the day 
before when they were only three. 

Father said “Are you four years old 
this morning? Well, you are big girls. 
Let me see if you have grown any taller 
than you were last year,” and he took 
them in the bathroom and stood them up 
against the door, making marks with a 
pencil on the door just above their heads, 


THE BIRTHDAY 


3 


so that when they turned to look, sure 
enough, this year’s mark was higher than 
last year’s, which was made on their third 
birthday. They had grown all that 
distance in one year and they hadn’t felt 
it a bit! 

Soon the whole family was dressed, 
brushed and combed, and went trooping 
down the stairs — Father, Mother, David, 
Henny and Penny. When they got in 
the dining-room and the twins were 
lifted up into their high-chairs, there 
they found their plates turned upside 
down with packages under them, stick- 
ing out in all directions. “Oh-o-o-o, I’ve 
got a doll,” said Henny, taking the paper 
off the top package under her plate. 

“So have I,” said Penny, undoing hers 
as quickly as she could. 

“Oh, a ball !” squealed Henny. 

“I’ve got a ball, too,” squealed Penny. 

“A kitchen stove!” cried Henny, get- 
ting more and more excited. 


4 


HENNY AND PENNY 


“Eve got a kitchen stove, too. Now 
we can cook for our dollies,” cried Penny, 
jumping up and down in her high-chair. 

“A na’kin ring,” Henny was taking it 
out of the box. She meant napkin ring, 
but couldn’t say it. 

“So have I got a na’kin ring,” and 
Penny took hers out of the box. 

“Here’s a nice penny in this box.” 
The “penny” was a five-dollar gold piece 
from Grandfather. 

“And here’s my penny. Oh-o-o-o!” 
said Penny, kissing it because it was so 
shiny. 

“I gave you the balls. Do you like 
that kind?” asked David, who was en- 
joying it as much as they were. In a 
second the twins slipped down from their 
chairs, ran to the other side of the table, 
and as they squeezed him cried “Oh 
thank you, Davy.” And Father said “J 
gave you the kitchen stoves.” At that 


THE BIRTHDAY 


5 


they ran to Father and nearly smothered 
him with hugs and kisses. 

Mother said “Mother gave you the 
dollies and Nayno (she was their grand- 
mother) sent the napkin rings and Baydo 
f (he was their grandfather) sent the gold 
pieces.” By this time the twins were 
both on Mother’s lap. 

“There is something in the hall closet 
from Dootsie,” said Mother. “Go open 
the door and see what is there.” 

They flew to the hall closet and 
opened the door and dear, oh dear, what 
do you think was there? Two doll car- 
riages, side by side! Two doll carriages 
with tops that moved up and down and 
straps to keep the babies from falling 
out, and brakes on the wheels. “Dootsie 
sent you those. Aren’t they lovely?” 
said Mother. Dootsie was Mother’s 
aunt, so she was the twins’ aunt, too. 

By this time the two little girls could 


6 


HENNY AND PENNY 


hardly speak. Mother said they must 
come and eat their breakfast, so they 
wheeled the carriages out, backed them 
around by their high-chairs and Mother 
put all the presents in them. The twins 
ate their oatmeal and other things, but 
between every mouthful they hc^d to look 
around at those darling carriages. It 
took a long time for breakfast, because 
Mother made them eat as much as usual 
and would not let them jump down after 
drinking their orange juice (which was 
what they wanted to do, for they didn’t 
feel a bit hungry with all those new 
things to look at) . 

The whole morning was spent wheel- 
ing the carriages, just full of dolls, up 
and down the sidewalk, but just after din- 
ner there was some trouble. First — 
Penny spilled a bottle of red ink all over 
her dress and white stockings, and while 
her clothes were being changed, Henny, 
who was waiting for her alone in the liv- 


THE BIRTHDAY 


7 


ing-room, happened to turn around and 
see a box of chocolates on the table! 
When she reached up to feel of it, over it 
went, scattering candies all over the floor. 
They looked perfectly delicious and 
Henny thought if she ate the ones that 
were under the table no one would know 
about it. Just as she was enjoying her- 
self Mother came in and said, “Henny 
dear, you know you are not allowed to 
eat candy without permission. Now I 
will have to shut you up in the Naughty 
Closet, and on your birthday, too!” So 
she did. It wasn’t a dark closet, but the 
window was small and very high up, and 
there was nothing interesting in it — noth- 
ing but shelves full of sheets and towels 
and pillow-cases, with a chair to sit on 
when you were being punished. 

Henny sat very still licking the choco- 
late off her fingers. Pretty soon she 
heard a little rustling noise. “I fink 
that’s a bear,” she thought, but just then 


8 


HENNY AND PENNY 


her bright eyes spied a tiny mouse run- 
ning close to the wainscoting. 

“Here, Mousie, Mousie,” she whis- 
pered. The mouse stood still. Henny 
felt in her wee pocket for some cake 
crumbs left over from a cake some one had 
given her that morning. She threw them 
on the floor but the mouse took no notice of 
them. “That’s nice cake, Mousie. Eat 
some,” she urged, still in a whisper. 

She sat so quietly that her patience 
was soon rewarded. The mouse stuck 
his head out and his whiskers began to 
move back and forth as he smelled of the 
nearest crumb. Then, to Henny’s de- 
light, he ate it. He looked at her and 
she looked at him. Neither one moved. 
He grew bolder and made a quick run for 
the next crumb. Henny never stirred. 
Then Mr. Mouse lost all his fear and 
ran about from crumb to crumb, eating 
every one. 


THE BIRTHDAY 


9 


“That mouse is as good as a carpet- 
sweeper/’ thought Henny. 

When Mother put her hand on the 
door knob outside, the little fellow scut- 
tled away and disappeared without a 
sound. “Are you sorry, Henny?” came 
Mother’s voice through the door. “Yes, 
Mother.” Henny had almost forgot- 
ten what she ought to be sorry for, she 
was so delighted with her new friend, 
and as soon as the chocolate was washed 
off her face and hands, -she ran to find 
Penny and tell her all about it. Penny 
was just as pleased and excited, and they 
agreed to keep it for their Secret. 

“Let’s go see the mousie now, Henny,” 
said Penny. They tried to get the door 
open but the handle was too high for 
them to turn it when they stood on the 
floor, and they dared not get a chair, for 
fear Mother would come up the stairs and 
discover their Secret. “We’ll have to 


io 


HENNY AND PENNY 


wait until we get punished,” whispered 
Penny. They soon forgot the mouse, for 
they were going to have a Birthday Party 
that afternoon and it was time to get 
dressed. 

“Please, Mother, I want my sugar wib- 
bon,” begged Henny, meaning her white 
hair ribbon. 

“Why do you call it your sugar ribbon, 
Henny?” 

“Because I like it so much,” replied the 
happy child. 

“I call mine my salt wibbon because it 
looks like salt,” said Penny, who had 
never thought of naming it before. 

“Now you look like two little white 
angels,” said Delia, coming in at the door 
when they were all dressed. 

“I am going to be a angel, Delia, and 
plant flowers in God’s garden. I’ll plant 
sweet peas like the ones on your Sunday 
dwess, and eating peas, too, so you can 
eat them for your dinner, Delia.” 


THE BIRTHDAY 


11 


“Thank you, darlin’, but I’m thinkin’ 
it will be a good while before such mis- 
chievous children as you are will turn 
into angels. There goes the door bell. 
The party must be coming!” 

Delia hurried down the stairs with the 
twins close behind, and David slid down 
the banister and beat them all. Sure 
enough, it was the beginning of the party. 
David’s friend, John Pepper, stood out- 
side with a package in each hand. When 
he had come in and taken •off his coat, he 
held the packages high above his head 
and said, “I’ll give you each three 
guesses, and if you guess right you can 
have these to open and keep for your- 
selves.” 

This was great fun. 

“I guess it’s a canary baid ,” said 
Henny, for she had wanted one a long 
time. 

“How could a canary bird be shut up 
in a paper without air? It would die. 


12 


HENNY AND PENNY 


No, you’re wrong. Now you guess, 
Penny.” 

“A dollie’s bed.” 

“Now you know that isn’t the shape of 
a doll’s bed. Guess again. 

“A tea set.” 

“No, it isn’t a tea set. One more 
guess.” 

“A — a mouse !” said Penny, thinking of 
what Henny had told her before they 
were dressed. 

“No, you silly baby, it isn’t a mouse. 
Now you try, Henny.” 

“I know — a popgun for Davy.” 

“I wouldn’t bring David a popgun on 
your birthday. It’s something for you — 
something girls like. Henny tried once 
more. “It’s a dolly,” she whispered. 
And so it was. Out of each package 
came one of those funny French peasant 
dolls with wool hair and bright red spots 
on their cheeks. The twins jumped up 
and down for joy. Often they had seen 


THE BIRTHDAY 


13 


those same dolls in the toy-shop window 
and wished they could take them home. 
They lifted all the other dolls out of the 
carriages, putting the new ones in, and I 
don’t doubt that the French dolls felt very 
grand indeed sitting up in those elegant 
carriages, each one with a nice new mother 
to take care of her. 

The bell rang again and the rest of the 
party came right along. First Jamie, the 
lame boy who lived next door, hobbled in 
on his crutches, and with him was his little 
brother George. Then Mrs. Steadman 
who lived at the Old Ladies’ Home and 
did most of Mother’s plain sewing. She 
was a great favorite with the twins. Af- 
ter her came the dog from across the way 
— Gyp. The maid brought him on a 
leash, but as soon as he saw his playmates 
she let him loose, asking what time she 
should call for him. He bounded in, lick- 
ing the children’s hands, almost knocking 
them down in his delight at seeing them. 


H 


HENNY AND PENNY 


The last one to come was pretty Miss 
Frances, looking so sweet with her red 
cheeks and brown eyes. Then the fun be- 
gan. Even Gyp loved playing Hide the 
Thimble , and barked excitedly at the up- 
roar when it was found. London Bridge 
was a great favorite, too, and Penny 
would say “So, farewell my gemplum,” 
when it was a gentleman instead of a lady. 
Going to Boston came next, then The 
Farmer in the Dell. After that it was 
time to go into the dining-room. Was 
this their dinine-room? They could 
hardly believe it. It was all trimmed up 
with smilax, with little twinkling lights 
and flowers, and looked very much like 
Fairyland. Instead of Father’s and 
Mother’s big chairs at the ends of the 
table, the twins’ high-chairs were there. 
In the very centre was a great Jack Hor- 
ner pie (not a real pie you know, but a 
pink paper one with ribbons hanging out 


THE BIRTHDAY 


15 

of it, and each ribbon reached to some 
one’s plate) . 

“First you must eat your sandwiches 
and cocoa, children,” said Mother. She 
did not have to tell them to eat the forms 
of ice-cream which came next — ice-cream 
engines and automobiles and boats and cu- 
pids — and the delicious little cakes with 
pink and green and chocolate icing on 
them. They liked these so much they ate 
them without being told. 

Then the pantry door was held open, a 
bright light shone through, and riding 
high up on Delia’s tray, side by side, came 
two birthday cakes, each with a wreath of 
flowers around it, each with five candles 
on top — four for their four years, and one 
to grow on. How thrilled everybody was 
from Mrs. Steadman down! First the 
twins blew the candles out and then 
Mother lighted them over and over again 
so that every one could try blowing them 


i6 


HENNY AND PENNY 


out with one breath. Then the twins cut 
the cakes and each guest had a piece of 
each cake (one had orange icing on it and 
the other was chocolate) . 

“Now it is time to open the pie,” said 
Mother. “You pull your string first, 
Mrs. Steadman.” Mrs. Steadman pulled 
as if she were fishing and had a big bite. 
“What can it be?” she wondered. The 
twins had been shopping with Mother to 
buy all the contents of the pie, so they 
knew what was on the end of Mrs. Stead- 
man’s ribbon. 

“Guess,” cried Henny, jumping up and 
down. 

“It’s a book,” Mrs. Steadman guessed 
as she drew it up to her. 

“It isn’t a reading book. It’s a needle 
book with lots and lots of needles for you 
to sew buttons on with.” 

“Why, so it is. Just what I wanted. 
How did you know?” asked their old 
friend. 


THE BIRTHDAY 


17 


“Oh, I knowed you b’woke your needle 
last time when you sewed buttons on my 
wompers,” said Penny. 

“Now you pull, Miss Fwances,” cried 
Henny. Miss Frances had a flat package 
tied with her favorite green ribbon. 
“What can this possibly be?” she asked. 

“It’s me and Penny,” said Henny, who 
couldn’t wait for the paper to be taken off. 
“We looked pleasant, like the man said.” 

“And he gave us two candies. He said 
we were good gails to sit still,” added 
Penny. Miss Frances was so pleased 
with her photograph of the twins that she 
had to jump up and kiss them both. “I 
shall keep it on my bureau where I can see 
it ever so many times a day,” she told 
them. Jamie’s ribbon had a big mouth 
organ on the other end, George’s a bright 
red ball. John Pepper’s had a knife with 
three blades in it and so did David’s, just 
like John’s. 

They tried to make Gyp pull his, but he 


18 HENNY AND PENNY 

couldn’t understand what they wanted, so 
Henny pulled it for him, and what was 
tied fast to it but a chocolate mouse ! 

“Look at your Happy Birthday present, 
Gypsy,” said Henny, holding it close to 
his nose. Gyp took one smell, one look — 
and swallowed it whole! At that very 
moment the door bell rang. It was the 
maid after Gyp, and the cab for Mrs. 
Steadman. Miss Frances said she must 
go, too, and Jamie and George and all of 
them went with many thanks to Mother 
and the twins for asking them to such a 
lovely party. 

That night after Henny and Penny had 
been put to bed and were left alone in 
their cribs, side by side, each holding a new 
doll in her arms, Penny whispered “Come 
over here.” Henny moved over and put 
her little face close to the bars of her crib. 

“God gave us a happy birthday, didn’t 
he?” 


THE BIRTHDAY 


19 


“Yes,” said Henny, “I said thank you, 
did you?” 

“Yes I did,” replied Penny. “Henny, 
what is our mouse’s name?” 

“John Henry,” answered Henny, mak- 
ing it up on the instant. Penny thought 
that was a good name for a mouse, and 
wished it could have had some crumbs of 
the birthday cakes, so in a few minutes 
both little children were fast asleep with 
the cool night air blowing in on them 
through the wide-open windows. 



CHAPTER II 


THE CHICKEN POX 

BOUT a week after their birthday, a 



A night came when the twins could 
scarcely sleep. They were hot, calling 
for drinks of water every few minutes, and 
by morning their foreheads were dotted 
all over with spots. Mother telephoned 
for the doctor and after breakfast he came 
in, big and smiling, looked them over, and 
said they had the chicken pox. 

“Did a chicken peck Henny’s face full 
of spots in the night, Doctor?” asked 
Penny.” 

“Yes, it did,” said the feverish Henny 
eagerly. “It flewed in the windoo and sat 
on my pillow and pecked me all night and 
I couldn’t make it go away. It was a 
white chicken. It pecked you, too, — - 
Penny.” 


20 




V 





I 





THE CHICKEN POX 


25 


“No, not a white one didn’t. I had 
a black chicken that pecked me and I said, 
‘Go away,’ and it said, ‘Cut-cut-cut-aw’ — 
‘No, I won’t, no, I won’t.’ ” 

The doctor laughed. He said, “You 
must be good children and take the medi- 
cine I give you so those chickens won’t 
come back and peck you any more.” 

Like all children when they are not 
well, the twins were perfectly darling the 
first few days, so patient, so good and 
quiet. Every time Mother did anything 
for them they would put their hot little 
arms around her neck and say, “I love you, 
Mother. Do you love me?” She had a 
cot put in the nursery so she could sleep on 
it and hear them if they asked for any- 
thing in the night, staying near them all 
the time. Father and David came in 
sometimes, but the twins took very little 
notice of them, looking at them silently 
with fever-bright glistening eyes, while 
they breathed as quickly as panting dogs. 


26 


HENNY AND PENNY 


Mother’s cot was between the two cribs 
so that she could reach out and take hold 
of a little hand on each side if they wanted 
comforting, or put back the covers they 
kicked off so frequently. On the fourth 
morning as she was awaking she heard a 
small voice in the dark — “Mother, would- 
n’t it make you laugh to see a cow walking 
on his tail?” And then another voice on 
the other side — “Mother, wouldn’t it 
make you laugh to see a elephant stand- 
ing on his trunk?” Then Mother knew 
they were better. 

By afternoon they were lots better and 
asking for their “Play Boxes,” so Mother 
went up in the garret to get them. The 
twins sat propped up in bed against big 
pillows, eagerly waiting for her to come 
down again. When she brought in two 
large pasteboard boxes, exactly alike, they 
clapped their hands for joy. “Oh, I love 
to be sick,” said Henny. 

“I love to be sick, too,” echoed Penny, 


THE CHICKEN POX 


27 


hardly able to wait to have her box set 
down on her legs, and to get the lid off. 
The “Play Boxes” were full of playthings 
that the children were never allowed to 
have except when they were sick in bed, 
and that is what made them so much fun. 
One was marked HENNY in big black 
letters on the top, and the other was 
marked PENNY. 

“Oh, here’ s my moo cow.” Henny 
pounced upon a small red cow with a bell 
around its neck and hugged it affection- 
ately. 

“Here’s my Ba Ba Black Sheep,” said 
Penny, kissing it on the nose. In Hen- 
ny’s box there were a couple of bears, a 
lion, a tiger, an alligator, a horse and 
wagon, some Japanese men and houses 
and ever so many other things. 

Penny had a flock of chickens and ducks, 
a panther with green eyes, some small 
dolls, a pointed cap made out of cocoanut 
fibre, which she put on her head, and 


28 


HENNY AND PENNY 


dozens of trinkets of different kinds. 
Mother said, “Now that you have all these 
things to play with and are feeling so 
much better, I will go in my room and take 
a little nap.” 

“Mother,” said Penny, “I know how 
you sleep a cat nap.” 

“How 1 ?” asked Mother. 

“Why, you sleep with one eye shut and 
one eye open.” 

“Well, I am going to sleep with both 
eyes shut, and you must be good children 
and not call me unless you really need 
me.” 

“All right, Mother, we’ll be good.” 

Mother went in her room and shut the 
door, and the twins played with their new- 
old toys a long time. Then they heard 
David shut the hall door and come up the 
stairs on his way home from school. 

“Davy, come and play with us,” they 
cried when he opened the door. It was 
raining and he could not go out of doors, 


THE CHICKEN POX 


29 


so of course he accepted their invitation. 

“Shall we make a bridge?” he asked, 
‘Til get a board and put one end on Hen- 
ny’s crib and one on yours. You can live 
on this side of the river and Henny on the 
other.” 

“Oh, yes” they said, “get a board quick, 
Davy.” So he found a small board in the 
Playroom and put it across from one crib 
to the other. Then straightway the ani- 
mals began to troop across it with the help 
of six little hands. “I never saw a bridge 
unless it was over water,” said David, 
pretty soon. “Oh, I know what we can 
do!” Off he darted to the bathroom, re- 
turning very slowly with a heavy china 
wash-bowl filled with water. This he 
set down on the floor underneath the 
bridge, and it made an excellent pond. 
Henny’s cow got sick and died and David 
had to make a coffin to carry it away in. 

“It is too bad that cow died,” said 
Henny regretfully, as she saw it being 


3 ° 


HENNY AND PENNY 


carted off with the horse and wagon, “be- 
cause I meant to save him to make mutton 
out of him.” 

“My sheep is sick, too. He ate too 
much jam,” Penny announced solemnly. 
Every single one of the animals died and 
it kept David very busy finding enough 
boxes for coffins, and going back and 
forth on his knees across the nursery floor, 
pulling the horse and cart along with one 
hand on the horse’s back. Soon the 
grave-yard behind the door was filled to 
overflowing with dead animals, and they 
all had to come alive again and be put 
back in the cribs. 

Then David made tents of the sheets 
and they played circus, the twins getting 
so much better every minute that they 
soon stopped looking on and began to act 
in the circus, themselves. “There goes 
the pigeon overboard!” screamed Henny. 

Sure enough! The unlucky bird was 
crossing the bridge and it fell off into the 


THE CHICKEN POX 


3i 


water underneath. “Oh, he’s drownding, 
he’s drownding,” cried Penny, leaning 
over the railing of her crib to get a better 
view of the poor pigeon lying at the bot- 
tom of the bowl. Mother had told Penny 
over and over to say drowning instead of 
drownding, but she never could remem- 
ber. 

“Davy, get him out. He’s drownd- 
ing!” David ran to the rescue, fished out 
the poor unfortunate bird and dried it off 
on his trousers. And then, somehow or 
other, the animals, one by one, began to 
fall in with loud splashes. Some of them 
sank to the bottom, like the pigeon, and 
some floated on top. The excited chil- 
dren laughed at every fresh splash. 
David was obliged to bring towels out of 
the bathroom to lay on the floor around 
the bowl, and when the water was all 
splashed out, he had to fill it a second 
time. Shortly after that Mother awoke 
from her nap, and came in to see how they 


32 


HENNY AND PENNY 


were getting on. It did make them feel 
as if everything was not quite as it should 
be when they saw Mother looking at the 
wet towels on the floor and the wet ani- 
mals in the cribs and the paint that had 
come off the colored toys on Davy’s trous- 
ers. 

Mother thought at first that it was 
pretty bad, but then she thought, “They 
don’t know why those towels can’t be used 
again. The bowl of water did make it 
more real, and they are very happy and I 
am so glad they are well enough to play 
again,” so instead of scolding them, she 
explained why they ought not to get 
everything wet. Afterward she and Davy 
cleared away the mess. Then she gave 
the twins nice warm baths, and they 
looked too sweet sitting up in their cribs 
and eating their suppers on trays. David 
ran up and down stairs waiting on them, 
and after he had carried the trays down, 


THE CHICKEN POX 


33 


Mother took him on her lap and rocked 
him. 

“Please tell us a story now, will you, 
Mother? Please? Tell about when 
you were a little girl.” 

“Well,” began Mother, “once there was 
a little girl who spent all her summers in 
the country. She had no children to play 
with, so she had to do everything by her- 
self. One summer she had twenty-five 
cats and kittens. Most of the kittens 
were in nests in the hay-mows, where the 
little girl visited them every day. She 
had a cat house made out of an old turkey 
coop. Inside it she put soap boxes to 
make dining-room tables for the old cats, 
and that was where they had their meals. 
Sometimes she took long walks with her 
grandfather and his dogs. Then the dogs 
would run sniffing around in the grass, 
killing dozens of field mice which the little 
girl picked up to carry home in a basket for 


34 


HENNY AND PENNY 


her cats. She put grape leaves around on 
the soap-box tables and laid a mouse on 
each leaf. After that she knocked on a 
plate with a spoon, calling the cats — “Kit- 
ty, Kit-ty, Kit-ty!” They came running 
from all directions, but when she tried to 
make them sit properly at the table, they 
weren’t at all well-mannered. They 
seized their mice, growling, and ran off a 
little way so that the other cats could not 
touch them. 

“One summer the little girl had a pet 
blue-eyed goose. He used to like to stand 
near her while she rubbed his long white 
neck and talked to him. Another time 
she had a tame duck. She used to put 
that in a basket and set it on top of the 
piano when she had to practise. Some- 
times the duck, hearing the piano playing, 
would put its head over the top of the bas- 
ket and answer back in soft little quacks, 
thinking the music was other ducks. 

“One summer day the little girl went for 


THE CHICKEN POX 


35 


a ride with her grandfather to a farm 
where they had the darlingest baby lambs. 
She was wild with delight over them, so 
when the farmer’s mother very kindly 
offered to give her one, Grandfather could- 
n’t resist her begging, and let her take it 
home in the carriage. 

“The little girl and the lamb were al- 
ways together, except when she ate and 
slept. It even came in the house and up- 
stairs sometimes, but usually she stayed 
out of doors with it, and rainy days they 
spent in the summer house together. The 
lamb’s name was Molly. The very next 
summer Molly had a little lamb of her 
own, named Tommy, so there were three 
playmates instead of two. Another thing 
that little girl owned was a fat yellow 
pony, named Dandy, and a dog cart with 
seats on the side and a canopy top with 
fringe on it. 

“But the cunningest of all the pets she 
ever had was a tiny pink pig, as soft as 


36 


HENNY AND PENNY 


velvet. One of the farm hands brought it 
in from the pigpen. He said the old 
mother could only feed ten, so she would 
kill all over that number. It was a runt, 
he said, and would never grow very big. 

“You can imagine how delighted the 
little girl was with that mite of a pink 
thing. Her aunt fixed a bottle of warm 
milk and water which the pig drank just 
like a baby. It slept in a box of hay, and 
had its milk every two hours. In a short 
time it followed every step the little girl 
took — in the house and out. Pigs do not 
seem to see very well, but they have quick 
ears, and this pig knew the instant his 
young mistress spoke, and would answer 
her with grunts or squeals. When they 
went to the Post Office after the mail, if 
the pig stopped to root in the ground with 
his funny, blunt nose, while the little girl 
walked on ahead, he would look up, but 
couldn’t see her. Then he stood still and 
squealed. At that she laughed and said, 


THE CHICKEN POX 


37 


£ Come, Pig, come Pig/ and when he heard 
her voice he ran toward her as straight as 
an arrow. 

“Every few days she gave him a bath. 
She put him in a small tub, lathered him 
all over with soap, and scrubbed him with 
an old hair-brush, but he squealed and 
struggled so, she always had somebody 
give him his bottle, to keep him still, while 
she washed him. If he finished the bottle 
before she was through scrubbing him, 
there was an awful time ! After his bath, 
she dried his silky fur and rocked him to 
sleep with his head on her shoulder. Then 
she laid him carefully across her lap where 
he would sleep for an hour or two while 
she read a book. Now that’s all I can 
think of, and you must go to sleep.” 

“Was that you, Mother?” 

“Yes.” 

“Did you really have a little pig and all 
those things?” 

“Yes.” 


38 


HENNY AND PENNY 


“Oh, I wish I had been you.” 

“But then I didn’t have any twins or a 
nice brother to play with.” 

“Well, I’d rather have the twins, but I 
wish we had all those animals, too,” said 
David. Then he kissed and hugged the 
twins, and got into his own bed. They 
went right to sleep and slept all night 
long, and by morning the Chicken Pox was 
gone. 


CHAPTER III 


DIGGING THROUGH TO CHINA 

N OW it was beginning to be time for 
mud pies. Some days the sunshine 
was quite warm and in the sheltered 
place where the sand-pile was, the twins 
cooked in what they played was their 
kitchen. They mixed a little dirt with a 
very little water, patted it out thin and 
then they took a Baking Powder can, cut- 
ting nice round cakes out with it. These 
cakes they put side by side on shingles and 
set them out in the sun, and the sun made 


4 o 


HENNY AND PENNY 


them hard and pale, and then the twins 
pretended to eat them. They played 
they were sugar cookies and gingersnaps. 
Really they could almost taste them, 
they looked so good. Sometimes they put 
little stones over the tops for raisins and 
the stones baked into the cakes and stuck 
fast even when they were turned upside 
down. One day, after dozens and dozens 
of cakes had been baked, Henny had an 
idea. “Let’s dig through to China,” she 
proposed. 

“Will we see the Chinamen walking on 
their heads ?” asked Penny eagerly. 

“Yes, and we’ll have to walk on our 
heads, too. Won’t it be funny to go 
bumping along on our heads down there?” 
At that they both tried to practise stand- 
ing on their heads so that they would 
know how, but they were so fat and lit- 
tle, so bundled up with coats and things, 
they simply couldn’t do it. David came 
around the corner while they were trying, 


DIGGING THROUGH TO CHINA 41 


and he stood on his head without any 
trouble at all. “Davy, will you help us 
dig to China?” they begged. He ran off 
to the barn after his shovel, and they all 
three dug and dug, and the hole got bigger 
and deeper and wider, and after a great 
deal of work it was deep enough for them 
to stand in it without being able to see 
over the top. They heard Uncle Ed 
whistling, and in a moment he stood tall 
and straight on the bank above their heads. 
“Well, what are you youngsters up to 
now?” he asked. 

“Oh, Uncle Ed, come on down and help 
us dig to China,” they cried. “Please 
come. We’ll get there ever so much 
quicker if you’ll help. Please, Uncle 
Ed.” 

“I’m so heavy I might fall through and 
scare those Chinamen. I’ll watch you dig. 
Let me see what kind of workers you are.” 
They shoveled harder than ever and the 
dirt flew in every direction, and their 


42 


HENNY AND PENNY 


cheeks were so red they looked like winter 
apples. In a few minutes Mother called 
from the house, “Children, it’s time for 
your supper.” They were so hungry they 
dropped their shovels and started to scram- 
ble out, but Uncle Ed stopped them. 
“That’s no way for good workmen to do,” 
he said. “Bring your shovels out and put 
them away in the barn where they belong. 
Good workmen always put their tools 
away when they are through with them.” 
So they picked up their shovels and Uncle 
Ed reached down and helped them climb 
out of the hole and walked with them to 
the barn, where they left their shovels 
leaning against the wall, all in a neat row. 
“ That's the way I like to see things done,” 
he said, and gave each of the twins a toss- 
up in the air, which was what they loved. 

“I’m hungry,” said Penny, “I could eat 
a million, billion, spillion dishes of ce- 
real!” 

“I could eat your supper and my supper 


DIGGING THROUGH TO CHINA 43 

and Davy’s supper and Uncle Ed’s sup- 
per!” said Henny. “Toss me up again, 
please , Uncle Ed.” 

“If I am going to toss you up it had bet- 
ter be before you eat all those suppers. 
You will be so heavy then I won’t be able 
to lift you,” so up she went, high in the 
air, and Penny right after her. They ran 
to the house with Uncle Ed chasing them, 
brushed their feet on the mat and trooped 
up to the nursery where Mother was wait- 
ing to take off their caps and unbutton 
their heavy blue coats and pull off their 
leggings, and then baths had to come be- 
fore supper. Fortunately for little hun- 
gry tummies the tubs were filled and wait- 
ing so that no time need be lost. Davy 
took his bath in Mother’s bathroom all by 
himself except for Mother’s scrubbing the 
sand out of his head and washing behind 
his ears, but the twins were set one in each 
end of the big nursery tub and soaped 
from head to foot. And then didn’t they 


44 


HENNY AND PENNY 


come out bright and shining in their 
nighties, bathgowns and slippers, looking 
fit to be eaten themselves ! 

In the nursery a little round table was 
waiting, all set with bowls and mugs that 
had fat yellow chickens painted on them. 
The children could hardly wait to have 
their bibs tied on before they began to eat 
cereal, scrambled eggs, bread-and-butter 
and cocoa, with apple sauce for dessert. 
They looked so sweet with their bright 
eyes and red cheeks and mouths all over 
apple sauce and their little white teeth 
that showed all the time because they 
laughed so much that Mother had to call 
Uncle Ed to come up and look at them. 

“Do you know who’s coming to-morrow, 
Uncle Ed?” asked David. “Sylvia’s 
coming.” 

“Who is Sylvia?” (Uncle Ed really 
knew, but wanted to make some talk.) 

“Sylvia’s a girl — a big girl,” said 
Henny. 


DIGGING THROUGH TO CHINA 45 

“She’s our cousin,” David explained, 
“and she’s going to stay a week.” 

“Will she help us dig to China*?” asked 
Penny. 

“No, of course not. Big girls don’t dig. 
They go walking and go to parties,” said 
David. 

“I’m going to get in her bed every morn- 
ing,” announced Henny. 

“No, I am. I want to wake her up. 
Cart 1 1 wake her up, Mother?” 

“You may both wake her up once in a 
while when Mother says so.” 

“J am going to the station to meet her 
because Mother needs a boy to carry her 
bag, don’t you, Mother?” said David. 

“What’s the matter with my meeting 
Sylvia?” asked Uncle Ed. “Don’t you 
think I’m a big enough boy to carry her 
bag?” 

David looked very sober at this, and 
Mother, seeing his mouth go down in the 
corners a little bit, knew how hard he was 


46 


HENNY AND PENNY 


trying not to show his disappointment, and 
hurriedly broke in with, “We can’t take 
you this time, Uncle Ed. I have made an 
engagement with Davy to carry Sylvia’s 
bag, and no one else will do.” David 
smiled happily. The front door banged 
below and up the stairs came Father, two 
steps at a time. 

“I thought I would get here in time to 
have a bite,” said he, kissing Mother on 
his way to the table, “but I see I am too 
late.” The children were scraping their 
apple-sauce dishes and every plate was 
empty. David slipped out of his chair, 
went over to the corner where his train was 
standing on the track, took an orange out 
of the coal-car and brought it back to 
his father. “You may have my orange, 
Father.” He offered it with both his 
small hands. 

“No, son, I’d rather see you eat it.” 

“I’d rather see you eat it, please.” 


DIGGING THROUGH TO CHINA 47 

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,’’ said 
Father, “we’ll eat it together.” 

So Father sat down with David on his 
lap and peeled the orange and pretended 
to eat most of it, but somehow he only ate 
two sections and Davy had the rest, and 
they were both satisfied. Meanwhile the 
twins rode-a-cock-horse on Uncle Ed’s 
foot until Mother thought they were get- 
ting too excited before going to bed, so she 
sent Father and Uncle Ed downstairs, and 
lighted the candles on the Prayer Table 
and they all four knelt down and said their 
prayers, and then Mother lifted the twins 
into their cribs and tucked them in, and 
held David on her lap while she read — 

“ ‘I think I want some pies this morning,’ 
Said Dick, stretching himself and yawn- 
ing; 

So down he threw his slate and books, 
And sauntered to the pastry-cook’s. 

And there he cast his greedy eyes 


4 8 


HENNY AND PENNY 


Round on the jellies and the pies, 

So to select, with anxious care, 

The very nicest that was there. 

At last the point was thus decided : 

As his opinion was divided 
’Twixt pie and jelly, being loth 
Either to leave, he took them both. 
Now, Richard never could be pleased 
To stop when hunger was appeased, 
But would go on to eat still more 
When he had had an ample store. 

‘No, not another now/ said Dick; 
‘Dear me, I feel extremely sick: 

I cannot even eat this bit, 

I wish I had not tasted it/ 

Then slowly rising from his seat, 

He threw his cheesecake in the street, 
And left the tempting pastry-cook’s 
With very discontented looks. 

Just then a man with wooden leg 
Met Dick, and held his hat to beg; 
And while he told his mournful case 
Looked at him with imploring face. 
Dick, wishing to relieve his pain, 

His pockets searched, but searched 
vain; 


DIGGING THROUGH TO CHINA 49 

And so at last he did declare 
He had not left a farthing there. 

The beggar turned with face of grief, 
And look of patient unbelief, 

While Richard now his folly blamed, 

And felt both sorry and ashamed. 

T wish/ said he (but wishing’ s vain), 

‘I had my money back again, 

And had not spent my last, to pay 
For what I only threw away. 

Another time I’ll take advice, 

And not buy things because they’re nice; 
But rather save my little store, 

To give to those who want it more/ ” 

When Mother had turned out the light 
and left them alone Penny whispered, 
“Do you s’pose we’ll have pigtails in 
China, Henny?” 

“Yes. I don’t like pigtails.” 

“I don’t want to walk on my head, 
Henny. Don’t let’s dig to China any 
more.” 

“All right,” said Henny, “it’s nicer here. 
Goodnight.” 


CHAPTER IV 


MEETING SYLVIA 

T HE next morning Penny flew down 
the stairs calling to her twin, “I’m 
beating you, Henny,” and Henny came 
after equally fast calling out, “I’m beating 
some other children down.” They were 
just play children that Henny was beat- 
ing. There was one big chair in the lib- 
rary which the twins loved and which they 
called the Snuggy Chair. When Mother 
and Father came down to breakfast, there 
they sat side by side in the Snuggy Chair, 
their feet sticking straight out in front of 
them, their curly brown heads bent over 
a large linen book with pictures of farm 
animals in it. They had lots of fun mak- 
ing the noises of all the animals and some- 
times it sounded like a whole barnyard 

full when they turned the leaves over 
50 


MEETING SYLVIA 


51 


very fast. “Aren’t they too sweet?” 
whispered Mother, and Father had to ac- 
knowledge that they were, and then put 
his arm around his boy so that he wouldn’t 
feel left out. “Father,” said David, “I 
have the grandest dreams.” 

“Well, son, what do you dream about?” 

“Oh, fish and guns and bands and sol- 
diers.” 

“I dream about bears and angels,” said 
Henny. 

“I don’t dream nuffin’,” Penny asserted 
as she slid down out of the chair. 

“Oh, don’t say that, Penny. Say T 
don’t dream anything,’ ” corrected David. 

“I don’t dream nuffin’,” repeated con- 
trary Penny, “and I want my becksha.” 

At breakfast they talked about Sylvia, 
and David was sorry she was not coming 
in the morning instead of the afternoon, 
so that he could stay home from school. 
She wasn’t, though, and when he had fin- 
ished breakfast he put on his hat and coat 


52 


HENNY AND PENNY 


and started off with his books under his 
arm. Mother went upstairs and Henny 
climbed up on the outside of the banister. 
“How do you suppose I could do that, 
Muddy?” she asked. 

“I don’t know. How could you?” 

“I used my brain and my feet and legs.” 

“Three good things together,” laughed 
Mother. She went to the closet to get 
their coats and hats and things so they 
could go out in the yard to play. They 
were the best children about amusing 
themselves and thinking of things to do. 
They never bothered Mother by whining 
“What shall I do now, Mother? I don’t 
know what to do next,” like some little 
boys and girls I’ve heard of! All morn- 
ing they had a grand time out of doors, and 
after dinner they took their naps. 

When they were safe in bed Mother and 
David started for the station. Arrived 
there, they went inside to ask if the train 
was on time. The ticket man looked out 


MEETING SYLVIA 


53 


of his grated window and said it was 
ten minutes late, so as it was much too hot 
inside they walked out on the platform. 
On their way they passed the news-stand 
which David had to stop and look at. It 
was bright and gay with all the colors of 
the rainbow made by magazines with 
pretty pictures on them hanging across the 
top on a line, and stacked in holders up 
and down the sides and at the back. On 
the counter there were piles of news- 
papers while in little square boxes he 
could see chocolate bars with lolly-pops 
and chewing-gum and toy lanterns and 
glass engines filled with candy. The man 
behind the counter was chewing gum, talk- 
ing and laughing with a customer. He 
wore his hat on the back of his head and 
looked jolly and fat. David thought he 
must be very happy to live in such a pretty 
place with plenty of candy to eat and so 
much going on about him all the time. 
He certainly looked happy. 


54 


HENNY AND PENNY 


David found the outside of the station 
just as interesting as the inside. People 
drove up in cabs at a break-neck speed and 
jumped out all excited at the thought of 
having missed the train — and then found 
it was not even in yet ! The expressmen, 
looking so important with brass plates on 
their caps, hauled long trucks piled high 
with trunks, to a waiting place alongside 
the track. The newsboys ran about with 
papers under their arms. One of them 
was no bigger than David. There he was 
among all those people, alone without his 
father or mother. That must be fun, 
David thought. He wished he could do 
that, too. They walked past the boot- 
black who was always on his knees before 
a man sitting high up above him. David 
liked to see him put his bare hands right in 
the black polish and smear it on the man’s 
shoes. Maybe he never had to wash. 
That made it seem even nicer to be a boot- 
black than to be a newsboy. There was 


MEETING SYLVIA 


55 


nothing that got on David’s nerves so 
much as having to wash his hands, and he 
risked being sent away from the table for 
dirty hands twice every day, hoping no one 
would notice them, rather than go and 
wash them in the first place. Yes, the 
boot-black had the best of it, according to 
David’s way of thinking. His hands 
were such a nice comfortable color ! 

Then a hand-car came down the track. 
Four men were working the handle up and 
down like a pump, and they flew past like 
the wind. How David wished he could 
do that. Mother let him look into the res- 
taurant and see the steaming urns of cof- 
fee, the sandwiches and cakes and pies 
under glass covers, and the high stools 
along the counter. He would have given 
almost anything to sit perched up on one 
of those stools and have a plate and cup 
and saucer put down in front of him, and 
eat there as those men were doing. 
When he got to be a man and earned 


HENNY AND PENNY 


56 

money of his own he would sit on a high 
stool and eat at a counter, too ! 

The Sandwich Man, dressed in a white 
coat, and carrying a large basket of sand- 
wiches, lifted up a door in the counter and 
came out. He saw David looking 
at him and began to call, “Sand- 
wiches, sandwiches - ham - tonga - cheese.” 
They followed him out and found the 
people all gathering together. The 
train must be coming. Thrills! It was. 
More thrills! Slowly the great black 
monster came sliding down the track 
towards them. David took hold of 
Mothers hand and held his breath. 
What if he stood in front of it! What if 
he so much as put one foot on the track! 
The monster would come right on, just the 
same, and cut his foot off ! It was terrify- 
ing, and oh, the noise it made as it passed, 
and the puffings and snortings of steam 
that came out of it! Slowly it hauled the 
cars up and stopped, and people poured 


MEETING SYLVIA 


57 


out of them onto the platform. Mother 
said, ‘There is Sylvia/' and David looked 
up and saw coming down the steps of the 
car the sweetest, prettiest girl. There 
were hugs and kisses, and Mother told Syl- 
via to let David carry her bag. Sylvia 
said it was too heavy, but he said no 
it wasn’t. It really wasn’t too heavy, but 
it weighed so much that he was glad 
to walk behind the ladies so that they 
shouldn’t see how often he had to change 
it from one hand to the other. In the taxi 
David sat opposite Mother and Sylvia, 
looking at them talking and laughing 
together and it seemed to him that he had 
never seen such lovely ladies. Henny and 
Penny were waiting for the visitor and ran 
out to meet her, and they all escorted her 
up to her room, talking and playing there 
while she unpacked her bag and trunk. 
When supper time came, Sylvia sat by the 
nursery table and talked to the three 
children until they finished eating. After 


58 


HENNY AND PENNY 


they were safe in bed and had been kissed 
countless times and said a hundred good- 
nights, she went downstairs with Mother, 
leaving them very happy to have such 
a lovely visitor, as they looked forward to 
seeing her in the morning. 



71 



CHAPTER V 


UNDER THE OAK TREE 

T HE next night Mrs. Steadman came 
to stay with the children because 
Mother was giving a dinner for Sylvia and 
then the people at the dinner were all 
going on to a dance. The house had smelt 
like a party all afternoon — like almonds 
being salted and all kinds of delicious 
things, and the children had been in to 
look at the long table sparkling with glass 
and silver and decorated with lovely 

59 


6o 


HENNY AND PENNY 


flowers, before they went upstairs to get 
ready for bed. Now they were in their 
nighties and bathgowns and were sitting 
around the nursery table. David had put 
the bowl with goldfish in it on the table 
for a centrepiece, and the twins were 
knocking against the bowl with their 
spoons. Every time a fish appeared close 
to the glass staring out at them, a tap of 
the spoon would make Mr. Fish dart away 
as quick as a wink with a little flirt of his 
tail. Mrs. Steadman sat in a low rocking- 
chair near by. “What would your cat do 
if he could see those fish, Mrs. Steadman*?” 
asked David. 

“I’m afraid he would jump up on the 
table. He would try to catch them from 
the outside, and then when he found he 
couldn’t do that, he would put his paw in 
the water. He wouldn’t be able to catch 
them, though, because the water is too 
deep and cats don’t like to get wet.” 

“Why didn’t you bring him along*?” 


UNDER THE OAK TREE 


61 


asked Henny. “What is he doing*?” 

“He is fast asleep on his cushion. He 
never likes to go away from home,” said 
Mrs. Steadman. 

“Please tell about when you were a 
little girl,” begged David. 

“What shall I tell about it?” 

“Oh, about how you lived in that little 
red house and about the Oak Tree and 
how you played house,” David replied. 

“Henny and Penny, do you want me 
to tell about the Oak Tree and the dolls 
we used to make?” asked Mrs. Stead- 
man. 

“Oh, ye-e-e-s, please,” cried the twins, 
their eyes as bright as stars. 

“Well,” she began, “when I was a little 
girl I had five brothers and four sisters, 
and we were so poor we never had a lot of 
nice toys to play with the way you have. 
There are two things I always wanted. I 
always wanted a white dress and a store 
doll and I never had either one. We 


62 


HENNY AND PENNY 


lived in a little red house in the country 
and a short distance from the house was a 
big oak tree — oh, such an enormous tree it 
was! The roots of it spread out in all 
directions just like the spokes of a wheel, 
and part of the roots were above ground. 
This divided the ground off in sections 
like slices of pie, and my sisters and I each 
had a section for a house, where we used to 
play when we weren’t helping Mother. I 
was the oldest so I had to do the most 
work. I used to help the other children 
dress, although they did as much as they 
could, themselves. They had to. One 
person couldn’t dress nine children, you 
know, and get them all ready for break- 
fast, unless they got up before daylight.” 

“Oh, I wish we had ten children,” said 
David. 

“You wouldn’t wish so very long if you 
had them and you were poor, I can tell 
you,” went on Mrs. Steadman,” and yet 
we had fun, too. Our Mother was very, 


UNDER THE OAK TREE 63 

very kind and gentle to us. I guess she 
felt sorry for us because we had so little 
and because Father was so stern and strict. 
We had to stand around when he was in 
the house. We were always glad when 
he went out and sorry when he came home, 
because it usually meant a whipping for 
one of us when he was around. He kept 
a birch rod in the corner, all ready for us. 
I can see it yet.” And she sat still and 
looked way back, years and years, into her 
childhood, at the birch stick standing in 
the corner. The twins’ eyes were as round 
as saucers. “I won’t treat my children 
like that when I grow up,” said David, 
‘Til be like my father. Tell some more. 
Tell about how you played under the 
tree.” 

“Well, we didn’t have any dolls and 
toys at all like you have — the kind you buy 
in stores — but we made corn-cob dolls, 
dolls out of sticks of kindling wood 
dressed up in old pieces of calico and 


64 HENNY AND PENNY 

dolls out of clothes pins if they were 
broken so that Mother couldn’t use them. 
We had little flat stones and bits of broken 
china for dishes, bricks for stoves, and shin- 
gles with a brick under each end for 
tables.” 

“Oh, how lovely,” breathed Henny, 
“What else did you have?” 

“Well, there was a brook that ran near 
the tree. We used to make our dolls 
walk down to that, then we would take off 
their clothes and let them go swimming. 
You see there wasn’t any paint on them to 
come off, so it didn’t hurt them a bit to go 
in the water, and they could swim or float 
beautifully. They would swim a long 
way down the brook while we walked 
alongside with sticks to push them out if 
they stopped anywhere on the way. 
When they got to the Spring House a 
board stopped them and we would fish 
them out and carry them back to where 
their clothes were. Sometimes Mother 


UNDER THE OAK TREE 65 

was in the Spring House making butter 
and she would give us a drink of butter- 
milk out of a great earthen jar that stood 
right in the brook. It was as cold as if it 
had ice in it.” 

“Tell some more. Tell some more, 
please,” cried Penny. 

“Let me see. Once I remember we 
found a dead bird under the tree. It was 
a beautiful little bird and we felt sorry it 
was dead, so we thought we would give it 
a funeral. We didn’t have a box for a 
coffin so we wrapped it up in grape leaves 
and dug a grave. We stuck all the dolls 
in the earth around the grave to make them 
stand up and we had a funeral and put the 
little bird in the ground. After we cov- 
ered him with dirt we made each doll carry 
a flower and lay it on his grave, so that 
it was piled quite high with flowers. 
Then we made a cross to put at the head. 
Before the summer was over we planted 
four small evergreen trees around that 


66 


HENNY AND PENNY 


bird’s grave and watered them so much 
they lived and grew. If they are there 
now they must be enormous trees. I 
wonder if they are.” 

Just at this moment Mother and Sylvia 
came in to say goodnight. Mother 
looked darling in a “sparkly” black dress 
and Sylvia was radiant in a dress like a 
pink cloud. “Oh, you look just exactly 
like an angel, Sylvia,” said David. 

“You funny boy. How do you know 
how angels look, Davy?” 

“I know how they ought to look — like 
you do now.” The children were kissed 
goodnight and then they went to bed with- 
out making Mrs. Steadman any trouble, 
as they had promised they would. They 
lay awake a long time listening to the fun 
that was going on downstairs. How they 
wished they would hurry and grow up 
so they could go to parties instead of to 
bed at night! 



CHAPTER VI 

SPRING 

O NE morning when Penny was being 
dressed she said, “After you get me 
geshed I will go out and look at the ’mom- 
eter and see if it is Sunday or Sp’ing- 
time or Wednesday,” and after she looked 
she said, “The ’mometer says it is Sp’ing- 
time.” It was Springtime and every kind 
of nice thing kept happening. First it 
was the snowdrops. One Sunday morn- 
ing Mother was sitting in her pew in 
church and a rosy-cheeked Henny, her 
eyes big and round and shining, came all 
the way up the aisle, whispered something 
twice, then turned and ran out. Mother 

67 


68 


HENNY AND PENNY 


couldn’t catch what it was, and after 
church she asked, “What did you come to 
tell me, Henny?” 

“I came to tell you that Davy’s snow- 
drop is blazing with flowers,” which news 
was enough to take the whole family out 
in the garden. There was the dear little 
plant with snow all around it, covered 
with delicate white flowers. They stood 
admiring it and looking at the buds not 
yet open on Henny’s and Penny’s plants, 
and Henny showed Father where she and 
Penny had been making a flower bed by 
sticking twigs in the snow in rows. “See 
our pleasant yitta garden,” she said. 

That very afternoon Penny fell in a 
pond of melted snow. It was quite deep 
and she got wet from head to foot. 
David jumped in after her, picked her up 
in his arms and carried her out. He tried 
to put her down on the bank, but she clung 
to him crying with fright and cold, so 


SPRING 


69 


somehow or other he managed to lug her 
all the way to the house. After Mother 
had given them warm baths and put on 
dry clothes, David sat in a little rocking- 
chair holding Penny on his lap, and they 
talked it over. He said, “ I would have 
jumped in if it had been up to my head. 
Do you know the reason I did that, Penny? 
Because I loved you!” 

“I wouldn’t be afraid of bears if you 
came, Davy,” she replied with a big hug. 

Every day now there was some new sign 
of Spring to make them happy. David 
would discover a little patch of green 
grass, then the twins would find some, 
and everybody had to come and look. 
The sun began to feel warm and they 
would all stand in a row in some sheltered 
place letting it shine on their backs, just 
to feel how hot it was. The days were 
getting longer and longer until finally 
they could eat supper without a light. 


?o 


HENNY AND PENNY 


That was an event. When they were 
half through supper they had to roll the 
shades way up to the top of the window 
and move the table nearer, and the light 
was turned on as soon as they had finished, 
but they did eat supper by daylight. 
Then big fat robins would hop about the 
yard chirping and pulling worms out of 
the ground. Finally one morning Mother 
called them all to the window and opened 
it wide to hear a bluebird sing. It was 
like a little bit of Heaven, that was. 
The furnace man told David he could 
catch all the birds he wanted if he would 
just put a little salt on their tails first, so 
one afternoon when the twins were asleep 
he begged some salt from Nora and tried 
and tried to get near enough to the birds 
to sprinkle it on their tails. He chased 
them from place to place around the lawn 
and he crept up under the bushes where 
they were sitting on the limbs, just as 


SPRING 


7i 


softly as a cat, but the wise little birds saw 
him every time and flew away before he 
could even throw it at them. They 
weren’t going to have salt on their tails, no 
indeed ! David finally had to give it up 
and was glad when John Pepper came to 
fly kites. 

For days and days after that the twins 
made all kinds of mud puddings and pies, 
while David and John dug underground 
tunnels. By and by it was time to plant 
the garden. Mother had a man to help 
her. Together they raked, set out plants 
and sowed seed. David and John Pepper 
went into partnership and spent all their 
money for seeds. Their garden looked 
like a cemetery with freshly made little 
mounds in it where the different kinds of 
seeds were. They made narrow paths to 
walk on so no one would step where any- 
thing was planted. At one end they 
stuck a horse-whip in the ground and tied 


72 


HENNY AND PENNY 


it to a stake and nailed on the stake a 
handsomely printed sign which read 
“Keep off this land. J. P. and D. H.” 
Every day after school they planted and 
watered their garden before they went off 
to fly kites or play marbles or roller-skate. 
The twins had a garden, too, and Mother 
gave them seeds and some tulip and hya- 
cinth plants in pots which she helped them 
set out so they would have something 
blooming and pretty without having to 
wait too long. They got John Pepper to 
print a sign for them which read, “His legs 
will be hurt if on this land.” 

Then there came two or three really hot 
days and the big cherry tree and two small 
pear trees burst into bloom almost as 
quickly as corn pops in a popper. Mother 
and Henny were looking out at them be- 
fore bedtime. “Say goodnight to the 
trees before I pull down the shade, 
Henny.” Henny kissed her hand to them 


SPRING 


73 


again and again and as the wind stirred 
the branches she said, “See them waving 
to me, Muddy / 5 

David was hanging out of the nursery 
window watching Mr. Pepper mow his 
grass. He turned around to see Mother 
and the twins coming in the room. “Mr. 
Pepper , 55 he said, “is mowing and unmow- 
ing his lawn. When he pushes the lawn- 
mower forward he mows it, and when he 
pulls it back, it doesn’t cut the grass, so he 
unmows it . 55 The air was soft and warm 
and there was such a lovely smell of cut 
grass and damp earth. The robins 
hopped about chirping and nobody wanted 
to go to bed, so they looked out of the win- 
dow a long time. It grew darker and 
darker. The young moon and some stars 
came out. People sauntered by on the 
street. Mr. Pepper put his lawn-mower 
away and went in the house and at last 
Mother said, “Now we must go to bed . 55 


74 


HENNY AND PENNY 


She tucked them all in, gave them drinks 
of water, and the last thing she heard as 
she went out of the door was Henny sniff- 
ing and saying, “I like the smell of the 
wind, don’t you, Penny?” 



CHAPTER VII 

SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY 

B Y and by summer came, and with it 
the day to go to Nayno’s house. 
Nayno was Grandmother and Nayno’s 
house was where Mother used to live 
when she was a little girl. To the twins 
and David it was the most wonderful 
place in the world. That morning when 
the trunks were going off and the last 
things being packed in bags, they ran a- 
round like rabbits, they were so thrilled. 
At last Nayno’s car, which she had sent 
for them, drove up to the door. They 
flew out and spent the time talking to Ed- 
mond, the chauffeur, until Mother and 
Delia were ready and came out and helped 
them into their hats and coats; then the 
bags were put in and away they went. 

75 


76 


HENNY AND PENNY 


They drove a long way into the country 
and at last came to Baydo’s big iron gate 
(Baydo was Grandfather) ; the road that 
wound in and out; the big Sycamore tree; 
the end of the long piazza, and the front 
of it, and there they saw Baydo and 
Nayno with Dootsie, waiting for them. 
Such hugs, such kisses, such gladness! 
Such shouts and laughing, with Neddy, 
the dog, barking and jumping up at first 
one and then the other, almost knocking 
the twins down. Their hats and coats were 
off in an instant and David, Henny and 
Penny were running out to the big barn. 
First they went to look at David’s pony, 
Princess, in her box stall. David hugged 
and kissed the pony who seemed to be 
glad to see him. She was brown and 
white and so little that David could look 
over her back. Then they opened the 
cow-stable door where they saw ever so 
many darling baby calves which came 
crowding up to the railing, shoving and 






SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY 79 

pushing each other, staring at the children 
with their great brown eyes, while David 
and the twins patted and talked to them. 

“Come on, let’s go see the piggies now, 
shall we?” asked David, and they ran a- 
round behind the barn to where a piece of 
the orchard was fenced off, and there in 
one corner with a roof over their heads, 
were ten precious pink pigs fast asleep on 
the straw beside their mother. “Sh-sh-sh, 
don’t wake them up,” whispered David. 
They stood looking through the fence a 
long time. The pigs were all in a heap 
and the children thought the underneath 
ones must be very uncomfortable. Once 
in a while an under one would crawl out, 
climb up on top and go to sleep *on the 
backs of the others; then there would be 
stretches and sighs, with a little squeal 
now and then. Suddenly the mother pig 
heard something (pigs have very sharp 
ears) and started up with a grunt; every 
little one was on his feet in an instant, 


8o 


HENNY AND PENNY 


with ears sticking up straight. What she 
heard was the hungry squealing of the pigs 
in the other yard, and she knew Joe was 
coming with their dinner, so she joined in 
squealing, too. It was really a frighten- 
ing noise and the twins ran back a little 
way, but David stayed right where he was. 
“Hello, Joe,” he called when Joe came 
around the corner of the barn with a pail 
in each hand. 

“Hello, yourself. Well, well, when 
did you get here ? Are you going to help 
me this summer?” 

“Yes, I am,” said David, feeling very 
proud that Joe had asked him. 

“We’re going to help you, too, Joe,” 
piped up the twins. 

“All right, all right. I can’t have too 
much help to suit me,” replied Joe, wink- 
ing at David. 

“What are you going to do next, Joe?” 
asked David. 

“Feed the chickens,” said he. 


SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY 81 


“Oh, I want to feed the chickies,” cried 
Penny, dancing along, and they all went 
with Joe to the Chicken House where he 
scooped up a basketful of feed out of the 
feed-bin, and gave David some in a quart 
measure, and the twins each a little pan- 
ful. Oh, but it was fun going out in the 
chicken yard, having a whole flock of hun- 
gry chickens, turkeys, guineas, ducks and 
geese crowding around you so you could 
scarcely walk! Such a noise as they 
made ! The twins were a little afraid, es- 
pecially when a big rooster pecked in 
Henny’s pan and upset it, but David 
knew they would not hurt anybody, so, as 
soon as Joe poured a long ribbon of grain 
along -the ground and the fowls were busy 
picking it up, Henny and Penny weren’t 
afraid, either. 

Then they went hunting for eggs. 
Some nests had a china egg and a real egg 
in them. Some had a china egg and three 
real eggs or even six real eggs. The chil- 


82 


HENNY AND PENNY 


dren took turns lifting them out of the 
nests and putting them in Joe’s basket. 
Penny took out one of the china eggs. 
“No,” said Joe, “you must never take out 
the china egg.” 

“Isn’t it good to eat?” asked Penny. 
Joe laughed fit to kill himself. “No, it 
ain’t good to eat,” he said. 

“What’s it there for?” asked Henny. 

“It’s there so the hen will know that’s a 
nest. She steps in and she sees the china 
egg: then she says, ‘That’s the egg I laid 
yesterday. I’ll lay one by it to-day, and 
to-morrow I’ll lay another one; the next 
day I’ll lay another, and when I get the 
nest full I’ll sit on them and hatch out 
some chickens.’ That’s what the hen 
thinks when she sees that china egg.” 

“Don’t you ever leave any eggs for 
her?” asked David. 

“No, but after she has laid a good many 
she gets tired and won’t lay any more 
and she sits on the nest all day and clucks 


SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY 83 

when she gets off to eat. Then I put her 
in a nice new nest with thirteen eggs under 
her. She sits on them twenty-one days 
and then the chickens come out. Come 
on, IT1 show you some.” They went in 
the hatching-house and there in a nest in a 
dry-goods box was a hen with a whole fam- 
ily of little chickens peeping -out from un- 
der her feathers. Joe let each child hold 
one to see how soft it was, and Penny gave 
hers a kiss on top of its fluffy yellow head. 

“They’re coming out in the incubator 
over here, too,” said Joe. “ Now I’ll show 
you something.” They all got down and 
peered through the glass door of the incu- 
bator and Joe turned on the little electric 
light inside. All they saw first were four 
trays of white eggs, but they could hear 
the chickens peeping inside of the eggs. 
Then they discovered that many of the 
eggs had holes in them. “The chickens 
pick their way out,” Joe explained. 
“They are all doubled up inside the eggs 


HENNY AND PENNY 


and they pick and struggle; then they fall 
asleep and rest, and then pick and strug- 
gle again until the shell cracks open and 
falls apart. Look at this one here,” he 
said. Sure enough, an egg near the door 
cracked in two, and a wet staggering 
chicken fell out! It struggled over the 
tops of two or three eggs and then sank 
do’wn exhausted and went fast asleep. 
“Is that a chickie?” asked Henny in 
amazement. And no wonder. It wasn’t 
soft and fluffy at all, but wet and 
skinny and ugly. “It looks like that be- 
cause it was wet inside the egg and its 
feathers haven’t got dry yet,” said Joe. 
“Tomorrow morning when you come down 
here it will look just like those chickens 
with the hen, and there will be a lot more 
out.” He tapped on the glass door and 
the chicken woke up and climbed a little 
farther back, away from the light, and 
sank down to sleep again. “Come now,” 


SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY 85 

said Joe, looking at his watch, “it must be 
your supper-time.” 

“Oh, Joe, haven’t you got any kitties?” 
asked Henny. 

“Yes, there’s four in the barn.” 

“Goody, goody, we want to see four 
kitties,” cried both twins rushing toward 
the barn. “Are they in the same place 
they were last year — in the manger?” 
asked David. 

“No, the old cat hid them away in the 
hay-mow this time, but I watched her and 
found out where they were.” The hay- 
mow was nearly empty, so they had to 
climb up a short ladder and then jump 
down on the hay. Joe caught the twins 
as they jumped so they wouldn’t hurt 
themselves, but David stood on top of the 
partition and swung his arms and said, 

“One, two, three, 

The Bumble Bee, 

The Rooster crows 


86 


HENNY AND PENNY 


And away she goes!” jumping down all 
by himself. 

They tramped across the hay holding 
fast to Joe’s hands, and way over in the 
corner he knelt down and reaching in a 
hole in the hay as far as his arm would go, 
brought out a tiny grey kitten. “See, it’s 
eyes are shut yet. It is only four days 
old,” said Joe, reaching down again and 
bringing out a black and white kitten this 
time. Then another grey one, and one 
that was black all over. The kittens 
crawled around on the hay mewing with 
faint little voices. They knew they 
weren’t where their mother had told them 
to stay, in their own nest. Even if they 
couldn’t see, they knew something was 
wrong. David and the twins picked them 
up and petted them. “When will their 
eyes come open?” asked David. 

“On the ninth day,” said Joe. “Their 
eyes always stay shut until they are nine 


SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY 87 

days old. Look what funny ears they’ve 
got, too. You never see a big cat with 
ears like that.” Just then they heard a 
big cat-voice mewing, and the mother 
jumped up on the partition to see what 
was going on. She had probably been 
watching a mouse hole near by and heard 
her children crying. She talked to her 
babies, licking their fur, and pretty soon 
she picked one up — the black and white 
one it was — by the back of its neck and 
carried it down into the hole; then she 
came and took all the others. The chil- 
dren thought it must hurt the kittens to be 
dragged along like that but Joe said no, 
that was the way cats always carried their 
kittens. 

“Hen-ny! Pen-ny! come to supper,” 
somebody called from the house. Joe 
helped the children out onto the barn floor 
and they were starting to run when they 
saw Molly, their old sheep, with two little 


88 


HENNY AND PENNY 


black-nosed lambs, standing in the door- 
way. “Oh-o-o-o,” cried Henny, and, 
“Oh-o-o-o,” cried Penny. “Are those our 
lambs ?” 

“Yes, there’s one apiece,” said Joe. “I 
guess Molly thought you’d each want 
one.” 

“Oh, precious, -precious,” said Henny. 
“My prussia baby,” said Penny, meaning 
precious only she couldn’t say it. 

“Hen-n-y ! Pen-ny!” came the call 
again. It was hard to leave so many 
wonders and treasures, but they ran as fast 
as they could to the house. There was a 
lovely supper waiting for them on the 
piazza, and when bedtime came they 
found Nayno had had a big sleeping porch 
built off Mother’s room, and the twins’ 
two cribs were on it, side by side, next to 
Mother’s bed. It seemed strange to be in 
bed out of doors, and they listened to the 
frogs way off on the river, to the straw- 
berry crickets, the mooing of a cow now 


SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY 89 


and then, and the stamping of the horses’ 
feet in the stable. Once when a rooster 
crowed they thought he must be dream- 
ing it was morning, and they smelled the 
lovely June hay smell, and fell fast asleep. 


CHAPTER VIII 


BARE FEET 

T HE twins woke up first the next 
morning and wanted to run into 
Nayno’s room and get David. Mother 
said no they must wait until he was awake. 
Henny listened at his door. “Don’t you 
hear that little noise of Davy*?” she asked. 
It was his voice talking to Nayno. They 
opened the door, ran in and climbed on 
Nayno’s bed. All four lay in a row with 
their heads on the pillow and talked and 
laughed and told stories until time to get 
dressed. Then they started tickling each 
other and they laughed and laughed so 
that Mother had to come and take them in 
her room for Delia to dress. “Mother, 
may we have bare footies 4 ?” asked Henny. 
“Oh, Mother, please ,” echoed Penny. 

90 


BARE FEET 


9i 


“Yes, if you will be very careful where 
you step so that you won’t cut your little 
feet.” 

“Yes, we will, we will,” they cried, 
jumping up and down and clapping their 
hands for joy. “Davy,” they shouted, 
“we’re going to have bare footies.” “So 
am I,” called David from Nayno’s bath- 
room. It promised to be a hot day, so 
as soon as breakfast was over the three 
children ran out with their bare feet. 
“Feel the door mat,” said David, standing 
on it. 

“Oo-oo-oo, it scratches,” said Henny. 

“Feel how cold the piazza is,” Penny 
walked on it. “But here it is hot, come 
stand here.” They all three stood to- 
gether on a place where the sun was shin- 
ing, and which was so hot they had to 
jump right off. “Feel Neddy. Isn’t he 
nice and soft?” asked Davy. They 
smoothed Neddy’s head and back, they 
felt his paws with their feet, very gently, 


92 


HENNY AND PENNY 


so as not to hurt him, and Neddy opened 
one eye and shut it again. 

c Tm going to see Princess,” said David. 
This was grand, to make a bare-foot ex- 
cursion out into the world, away from the 
piazza. This was a real adventure. 
They took hold of hands and started to 
walk on the road, but their feet were so 
tender from wearing shoes they could 
hardly step at all. The little stones felt 
very hard and sharp, so they crossed 
slowly, step by step, over to the short 
green grass, and that was so deliciously 
cool and soft that they ran around, danc- 
ing, turning somersaults and rolling over 
and over down the hill. £ Tm so happy. 
I’m so happy,” sang Henny, and they 
grew more and more happy all day, trying 
the feel of everything they could put their 
feet on, playing, until when they came in 
for their baths before supper they brought 
such dirty little feet, but not a cut or a 
bruise on one of them. 


BARE FEET 


93 


That was the beginning of a whole sum- 
mer full of happy days. Mother let them 
have bare feet every day and they only 
wore socks and shoes when they were 
dressed up, which was not often, so they 
were as free and happy and healthy as any 
other little animals on the place, and that 
was very free and happy and healthy 
indeed. 



CHAPTER IX 


ROSE-HEART 

T WO robins built a nest in the tree 
just outside of Mother’s sleeping 
porch, and the three children spent a great 
deal of time lying on her bed watching 
them. When the nest was finished the 
mother robin laid an egg and flew off. 
Pretty soon the father robin flew up and 
stood on the edge of the nest for twenty 
minutes by the clock, looking at the egg, 
singing with all his might. After the four 
eggs were laid and hatched out, the father 
and mother carried food to their children 
all day long, and the baby robins grew 
bigger and bigger until Henny and Penny 
could see them sticking out over the top 
and sides of the nest. Then one day came 
a thunderstorm with a high wind that 

94 














































































































































































( 


















ROSE-HEART 


97 


tossed the branches about, and one of the 
robins fell out! David found it on the 
road beneath, after the storm, and brought 
it in the house. “Oh, -Mother, may we 
keep it, please ?” he asked, “I’ll dig worms 
for it. Please, please let me have it.” 

So Mother put a lot of newspapers on 
the floor of her bay window and fenced it 
with a board and set down a dish of water 
for him, and David and the twins went 
to the garden to dig worms. They found 
a good place to dig, and the twins scram- 
bled around and picked ever so many 
worms out of every shovelful of dirt that 
David threw out. It had just been rain- 
ing and the worms had come up near the 
top of the ground to get a drink. There 
were dozens and dozens of them — tiny 
pink ones, long thick red ones and some 
with white rings around them, all squirm- 
ing and twisting and trying to get back 
into the ground, but they couldn’t escape 
such quick little fingers. The can was 


98 


HENNY AND PENNY 


soon more than half full, and back they 
ran to the house to see if the robin would 
really eat them. 

Mother picked the first worm out and 
held it to his bill. He opened his mouth 
wide, threw his head back, and as Mother 
let the wriggling worm slide down his 
throat he gobbled and gobbled at it and 
chirped greedily all the time it was going 
down. Mother fed him two or three more 
and then David wanted to try, and finally 
the twins each gave him one, and then 
Mother said he must rest awhile or they 
would ruin his digestion. “I am going 
to call him Rose-Heart, Mother,” said 
David. Rose-Heart had funny little 
fluffy grey feathers sticking up on his head 
here and there. They meant that he was 
still a baby, for when he grew up they 
would be gone. He became tamer and 
tamer and would let himself be picked up 
without trying to get away at all. 

Several days after Rose-Heart became 


ROSE-HEART 


99 


a member of the family, another boy 
arrived to visit at Nayno’s house — the 
children’s Cousin William. William was 
older than David and could think of more 
things to do in half an hour than David 
could in a week. William wanted to 
camp out all night. He thought he and 
David could fix up a tent under the trees 
on the lawn, and take out some pillows 
and blankets, and was sure it would be 
more fun than anything in the world. 
Mother thought mosquitoes and stray dogs 
might bother them, and that they were too 
young to wake up in the night, maybe, and 
find themselves alone so far away from the 
house where everybody would be in bed, 
so she suggested that they play camping 
out in her big room. That satisfied them 
and all afternoon they brought in balsam 
boughs and fastened them on chairs for 
trees so that the room looked quite like a 
forest and smelled just like it. The twins 
begged the boys to let them camp out, too, 


100 


HENNY AND PENNY 


and finally got their consent. When sup- 
per-time came they spread a small table- 
cloth under the play-trees and had a picnic 
supper — sandwiches, eggs, milk and cake. 
It seemed like really camping in the 
woods. Then they pretended to sit 
around the campfire, while the boys 
played they were smoking, and told stories 
about what fish they had caught during 
the day. “This is fine tobacco,” said 
William, pretending to puff out rings of 
smoke. “I haven’t smoked any as good 
as this in a long time. Where did you get 
it, Dave?” 

“I sent down to my New York club for 
it. It is the kind they always keep there.” 

“You should have seen the fish I almost 
pulled into the boat to-day,” went on 
William. “I give you my word it was al- 
most as long as I am, and heavy — well, it 
was so heavy it broke my rod. Then I 
pulled it in, hand over hand, until it was 
alongside the boat and then, just as I got 


ROSE-HEART 


101 


its head out of the water and was going to 
grab it with my hands, it gave a quick 
jerk — like that — snapped the line right 
in two, and away it went!” The twins’ 
eyes were as round as saucers. They al- 
most believed he really had been fishing. 
“I had one,” said David, not wishing to be 
outdone, “that pulled so hard it pulled me 
right out of the boat. I swam along and 
kept hold of the rod all the time until we 
got to the falls and the fish jumped over 
and went down the falls and then I had to 
let go. If it hadn’t been for those falls 
I might have been swimming yet!” 

“I fought I had a bite and when I pulled 
it out it was a big rock,” said Penny. 

“I had a big fish on my line,” said 
Henny, “and it pulled the boat all the way 
to New York and I got out and went to 
see Uncle Ed and he gave me ice-cream. 
Then the fish pulled me all the way home 
again.” 

“You win, Henny,” said William. 


102 


HENNY AND PENNY 


“Now we’d better think about turning in. 
Let’s put the robin in that box and set it 
here by us so it can be a bird singing in the 
woods when we wake up. We must all 
roll up in our blankets and go to sleep.” 
He rolled himself up in his blanket and 
the others tried to roll themselves up just 
as he did, and they lay on the floor, talked 
and laughed, and after a long time they 
fell asleep. 

The next day Mother went away for a 
week. When she got back David and the 
twins had the long piazza decorated with 
green branches and flowers and a big flag. 
David threw flowers into the car as it 
drove up, and had Rose-Heart in his hand 
to greet her. By this time Rose-Heart 
was flying around outside, sleeping in the 
trees at night, and ever so many times a 
day he would come down on the piazza to 
be fed. When he got hungry he chirped 
and chirped from a near-by tree until some 
one answered, then he flew down and lit 


ROSE-HEART 


103 


on the back of a chair or on somebody’s 
shoulder. Whoever it was had to get out 
the can of worms and feed him until he 
was satisfied. He would let himself be 
picked up and carried around for a while, 
but then he would suddenly fly up into a 
tree far above the house. One morning 
Mother looked out of the window before 
breakfast and there was Henny in blue 
rompers and with little bare feet, walking 
around on the grass in the sunshine, carry- 
ing Rose-Heart and singing to him. He 
seemed to be enjoying it as much as she 
was. The very next day he flew away 
and never came back. Perhaps he found 
his robin brothers and sisters and went 
south with them for the winter. 


CHAPTER X 
david’s fish-pond 

F ATHER had come to Nayno’s house 
and was sitting in a big piazza chair 
with Henny on his lap. “Last summer I 
killed a miller!” said Henny. 

“You did? How did you kill it?” 
“Well, I stepped where it was and then 
it was dead,” replied Henny. Father 
and Henny were watching for the big day 
boat to come up the Hudson. Another 
boat came down. “Read the A, B, C’s on 
that boat and tell me the name of it. 
Father.” 

“That is the Queen of the Hudson ,” 
read Father. 

“That is a lovely name for a boat,” said 
Henny. 

“Look at those beautiful clouds just 
104 


DAVID’S FISH POND 


105 


above the hills,” said Father, pointing. 

“Yes, I see them.” Henny sat up 
straight and looked. “The angels come 
out and lie down there in a row, then when 
the sun goes down they get up and walk 
away,” she said. 

“Is that what they do?” asked Father. 
“Look, Henny, at the fireflies sparkling 
through the air.” 

“I know something, Father. The fire- 
flies go up in the sky and that’s what 
makes the stars.” 

“That reminds me that I know what 
little girls are made of,” said Father. 
“They’re made of sugar and spice and all 
that’s nice.” 

“What are little boys made of?” asked 
Henny. 

“Snips and snails and puppy dogs’ tails. 
That’s what little boys are made of,” re- 
plied Father. “There comes one now.” 
Walking up the hill from the river, carry- 
ing a large tin pail very carefully, was 


106 HENNY AND PENNY 

David. When he caught sight of Father, 
he began to run, but the water slopped out 
and he had to slow down to a walk again. 
“Father,” he called “I’ve caught a fish big 
enough to eat — a sunfish.” Nayno came 
out of the front door and David brought 
his pail up and set it down where they 
could see. One small sunfish was swim- 
ming around in it. “Nayno, may I keep 
it in your bathtub, please 1 ?” he begged. 
Nayno couldn’t say “no” to anything 
David wanted very much so she said 
“Yes,” and got a great big hug from a dear 
little dirty boy in return. Henny slipped 
down off Father’s knee and they went joy- 
fully up the stairs to make the fish com- 
fortable. Penny joined them on the way 
and both twins hung over the edge of the 
tub watching David turn on the water. 
When the tub was about a quarter full he 
dumped the pail of water and the fish right 
into it. The fish darted around like light- 
ning in the long white tub. “Make the 


DAVID’S FISH POND 


107 


water a little too hot and a little too cold 
and then it will be just right, Davy,” said 
Penny. 

“No*, it isn’t good to put hot in. That 
would kill the fish. Don’t you know 
that?” asked David. 

“Oh, Davy,” cried Penny, “that fish is 
having the best time in there. I wish I 
were a fish!” David reached over to the 
sponge rack where Nayno kept his cellu- 
loid ducks and frogs that always took a 
bath with him, and picked out a painted 
fish which he put in the tub for company 
for the sunfish. He tried to shoo the live 
fish toward the celluloid one, but it darted 
and flashed back and forth like a crazy 
thing, and wouldn’t notice it at all. “I 
guess it wants live fish for company. To- 
morrow I’ll catch some more — if I can,” he 
added, remembering how he had fished all 
day long for this one. “Let’s go down 
and get some stones so it will look more 
like the river. Maybe it’s homesick with 


io8 HENNY AND PENNY 

all this white around.” Davy picked up 
the pail. 

“Oh, yes, let’s.” The twins clapped 
their hands at such a bright idea and 
they all went pell-mell down the stairs 
and out of doors to find stones. They 
filled the pail, and the twins carried that 
together between them, while David 
found a rock he could just lift, and carried 
that up. “This will be a good place for it 
to hide under, where this piece sticks out,” 
he thought. When they had put the rock 
in one end of the tub and the stones along 
the bottom, the water was quite brown and 
muddy and David was sure the fish must 
feel much more at home. Then he re- 
membered a little red stone castle that 
was down in the laundry. This used to 
be in a fountain when Mother was a little 
girl. It had doors and windows in it that 
the fish could swim through, so he ran 
down two flights of stairs and brought the 
castle up and put it in the other end of the 


DAVID’S FISH POND 


109 


tub. “Now you’ll have to have your bath 
in our tub to-night, Davy,” said Penny. 

“I don’t mind that. I’d rather have 
the fish,” he said. 

The next morning David hurried 
through his breakfast and went straight 
to the river to fish. By night he had 
caught three more sunfish, and a kind man, 
who was also fishing, had given him five 
bullheads. That made quite a fish-pond. 
The children fed the new-comers bread 
crumbs, and could hardly be torn away 
to take their baths and go to bed. The 
next day another man gave David two big 
eels and three or four little ones, and he 
caught two more sunfish, himself. By 
this time Nayno’s bathroom was smelling 
very fishy and she was obliged to take her 
baths in another room, which was not very 
convenient, but the children were having 
such a good time she could not bear to 
break it up. They kept stirring the fish 
up with a stick, and would shout with ex- 


1 io 


HENNY AND PENNY 


citement when a long eel wriggled near 
the surface. Finally one of the eels dis- 
appeared and Nayno thought it must have 
gone down the pipe when David let the 
water out in order to put fresh water in, so 
she telephoned for the plumber, and 
David had to carry the fish all back to the 
river, and that was the end of David’s 
Fish-Pond in Nayno’s bathtub. 




CHAPTER XI 


THE CHESTNUT MEN 

O NE night just before Penny went to 
bed, she fell and hurt her head. 
Mother rubbed the place and gave her a 
bit of candy, and after the twins were in 
their cribs she asked, “Does your head 
ache now, Penny ?” 

“No, Mother,” Penny answered, “the 
candy sweetened the ache away.” Then 
Mother and David lay on the bed between 
the two cribs, covering themselves up all 

hi 


112 


HENNY AND PENNY 


nice and warm, because it had been rain- 
ing and it was quite cold out there on the 
porch, “Mother,” began David, “let’s 
make a rule that every one that gets hurt 
at night has to have a story told to them.” 
Mother did not answer. He began again, 
“Now let’s have the story, Mrs. Nicest 
Lady in the World.” No answer from 
Mother yet. “We’re waiting for that 
story, Mrs. Best Story-Teller in the 
World!” 

“What shall I tell about?” asked 
Mother, and sounds of satisfaction went 
up on all sides. “Tell about the Chest- 
nut Men,” came from one crib, and from 
the other, “Oh, please tell about the Chest- 
nut Men, Mother. 

“Well, once upon a time,” she began, 
“there was a little boy, and one day he was 
playing out under a big Chestnut tree. 
He had a nice new knife in his pocket and 
he took it out and opened it and cut open 
one of the Chestnut burrs that lay under 


THE CHESTNUT MEN 


113 


the tree. To his great surprise a little 
man hopped out! Then he cut open an- 
other burr and a little man hopped out of 
that one, too. Then he cut open ever so 
many burrs and out came little men and 
women, children and cows, horses, sheep, 
pigs and even chickens. They were all 
as lively as crickets and ran about on the 
ground like a lot of ants. There would 
be a whole flock of chickens in one burr 
and they were so small that David (that 
was the little boy’s name) could hardly see 
them. Their eggs were so tiny he could 
only see them with a magnifying glass! 
David saw that the wee men were trying 
to make him look at them, but their voices 
were so small he could not hear them un- 
less he put his ear close to the ground. 
Then he heard them shouting, ‘Please, sir, 
will you take us to the Tree Gnome to get 
some lumber for our houses and some 
furniture, and will you get something 
to eat for a present to the Tree Gnome, 


n 4 


HENNY AND PENNY 


and a basket to bring the things away in ?’ 

“ ‘What does he like to eat?’ asked 
David. 

“ ‘He likes everything good to eat — pie 
and cake, puddings and everything sweet. 
He is always hungry,’ they said. So 
David went down to the kitchen where the 
cook gave him a mould of lemon jelly with 
whipped cream around it. He carried 
that and a basket back to the Chestnut 
tree. The little men all got in the basket, 
and the little women and children stayed 
to keep the cows and horses, the sheep, 
pigs and chickens from straying away. 
David held the basket up to his ear and 
the Chestnut men told him to take a stick 
and knock three times on the trunk of the 
tree. He found a good stout stick and 
knocked three times, like this — rap — rap 
— rap. A small door in the tree that 
couldn’t be seen at all when it was shut, 
flew open and there stood the strangest 
little man looking out at them, turning his 


THE CHESTNUT MEN 


115 


head from side to side. He had a long 
pointed grey beard, wore a high pointed 
hat and long pointed shoes. Said he, 

“ ‘What do you want? What do you 
want? What do you want?’ three times 
like that, very quick and excited. 

“ ‘Please, Mr. Tree Gnome, the Chest- 
nut men would like to get some lumber 
and some furniture for their houses/ said 
David. 

“ ‘Well, what have you got for me? 
What have you got for me? What have 
you got for me?’ cried the Tree Gnome, 
speaking faster than ever. 

David said, “ ‘I have some lemon jelly 
for you/ 

“ ‘What’s that? What’s that? What’s 
that?” The Tree Gnome was so eager he 
could hardly get the words out. David 
set the plate of jelly on the floor of the 
Gnome’s house and held the basket up 
close to .the door while the Chestnut men 
climbed out of it and trooped into the back 


n6 HENNY AND PENNY 

of the tree to get their things. Then 
David stood outside and watched the Tree 
Gnome. First he put his finger in the 
whipped cream and licked it off, and he 
liked the taste of it so much and was so 
piggish that he grabbed up whole handfuls 
and crammed it into his mouth, making 
noises for all the world like a pig, only 
worse. . . . He had the most dreadful 
manners. As quick as a flash he stepped 
right into the whipped cream and gathered 
up whole armfuls of it. It got all over his 
clothes and his long beard, and when he 
came to the jelly he liked that even better 
than the whipped cream. He threw his 
arms around it so tight that of course he 
squeezed the top right off it and it fell 
on him. His head stuck up through the 
jelly and as he slipped on a piece he fell 
flat, all covered with jelly and whipped 
cream. But he jumped right up, still 
smacking his lips and breathing hard, and 
he ate up every scrap and licked the dish 


THE CHESTNUT MEN 


117 


just as a cat does. Then he went off in a 
corner, lay down and went fast asleep. 
Well, David had never seen anything like 
that before. He took out the empty plate 
and waited for the Chestnut men. In a 
few minutes they came, dragging boards, 
windows, tables and stoves and every- 
thing to put in a house. He helped them 
into the basket, closed the door of the tree 
and then carried them over to where their 
wives and children were. After that he 
lay down full length on the ground with 
his chin in his hands, and watched those 
marvelous little men work. 

“They built the cunningest houses with 
wee front porches and teeny-weeny steps 
going up to them, and with windows and 
doors and up and down stairs just like big 
houses, and they made streets and drove 
horses up and down with wagons full of 
furniture. They put the furniture in the 
different houses, and by and by every 
single house had shades with curtains in 


n8 HENNY AND PENNY 

the windows, door mats, chairs and ham- 
mocks on the porches. Inside of every 
cunning little house there were chairs 
and tables, and pianos that tinkled like 
fairy bells; lamps, stoves, beds and cribs 
for the babies, with little bathrooms and 
everything you can think of, just like 
grown people. 

“By that time it was getting late in the 
afternoon and smoke began to come out of 
all the little chimneys. David could see 
the women cooking supper on their kitchen 
stoves. Pretty soon the men put away 
their tools and fed their horses, pigs, 
sheep, cows and chickens, milked the cows, 
and went home carrying the cutest pails 
of milk. Their children ran out to meet 
them and held fast to their hands, talking 
all the way home, and their wives were 
smiling at the doors. When the Chest- 
nut men had washed their faces and 
hands, they all sat down at their different 
little supper tables and ate their suppers 


THE CHESTNUT MEN 119 

by the light of the little lamps; then 
David heard some one calling him to his 
supper, and he just had to go, much as he 
hated to leave them. That is the end of 
the story; now you must all go to sleep.” 

“Thank you, Mother,” said David, 
snuggling up, and “Thank you, Mother,” 
came from each crib. In a few minutes 
they were sound asleep. 

The next day Penny came running 
around the corner of the house, her eyes 
as round as moons. “Mother,” she cried, 
“I cut two peanuts open and miffin’ 
hopped out!” 




CHAPTER XII 


CIRCUS DAY 

F INALLY the long happy summer 
came to an end. The family re- 
turned to town and David started going 
to school again. All three children were 
glad to see their old toys and the furni- 
ture in the house and people that they 
120 


CIRCUS DAY 


121 


had almost forgotten. David went roller- 
skating every minute he could while the 
twins wheeled their baby carriages up and 
down the side-walk, which felt strange to 
their feet. Mother thought she would be- 
gin to teach her little daughters to read. 
She said, “Let me show you how to make 
an A on the paper, Henny.” 

“No, I want to sew,” said the contrary 
child. 

“What do you want to sew?” 

“I want to sew a rag with a broken hole 
in it.” That gave Mother the idea of be- 
ginning sewing lessons, too, so she taught 
them how to make letters and how to sew. 
Every morning at nine o’clock they sat 
around a little table in the nursery and 
had lessons. As soon as the lessons were 
over, out they would go to play until din- 
ner-time. 

They had not been home a week before 
the circus came to town. David heard 
the boys in school tell how every year they 


122 


HENNY AND PENNY 


got up at four o’clock in the morning and 
went down to see the circus train come in 
— how they saw the elephants walk down 
the gang-plank, and the big tents put up, 
and all the actors eating breakfast in one 
of them. 

Father thought David wasn’t old 
enough to do that, yet, but said he would 
take them all to see the parade and the big 
show. It was on a Saturday, so there was 
no school, and half-past ten found Father, 
David, Henny and Penny standing on the 
curb at the corner with a crowd of other 
people. Far off up the street they could 
hear the music of the bands and see some- 
thing glittering in the sunlight. Near by 
were two balloon men with great bunches 
of bright colored balloons, making their 
way through the crowd. Henny and 
Penny wanted a balloon more than they 
had ever wanted anything before, and 
jumped up and down for joy when Father 
called to the man and bought one for each 















CIRCUS DAY 


12C 


of them. The twins chose yellow ones 
and David a blue one, and what fun they 
had waving them about and bumping 
them into each other until the parade was 
close to them. 

First came a magnificent Drum Major 
with a long silver bar keeping time for the 
band behind him; then horses and horses; 
ponies with riders beautifully dressed in 
silks and satins and laces. Then another 
band followed by great heavy gold cars 
creaking along with a sound unlike any 
other sound on earth, each drawn by ten or 
twelve or six horses. On the tops of some 
of the gold cars were bare-armed ladies 
reclining on cushions smiling down at 
them. Others were full of white-faced 
clowns who made jokes and called out to 
the people on the street, and one clown 
drove behind in a little donkey cart. He 
was the funniest of all. 

Still another band and after that cars 
with the sides taken off to show the caged 


126 


HENNY AND PENNY 


animals within. Panthers, lions, tigers 
walked back and forth, back and forth, 
back and forth in their cages; bears waved 
their heads from side to side, monkeys 
climbed around and swung in little trap- 
ezes; a hippopotamus was in his bath. 
Then there were more closed cars with 
pictures of the animals on the outside, but 
you could only see them if you went to the 
circus. 

Then the brazen deafening sound of the 
steam calliope, and behind that camels 
with humps, two by two, behind them ele- 
phants in single file, holding each other’s 
tails with their trunks. Their skin was 
tough and grey like the bark of trees, their 
big round-toed feet padded along with a 
shuffling sound and they had a queer 
smell, different from any other. 

The parade passed away down the 
street, leaving it blank and deserted — it 
was as if the sun had gone under a cloud. 

But there was the circus to look forward 


CIRCUS DAY 


127 


to, and after dinner they all went. They 
saw such wonderful things that they could 
hardly believe their eyes. When they got 
in bed that night, too tired for stories or 
anything but to fall asleep when their 
heads touched the pillows, David said, 
“Mother, how do you suppose God could 
make all those animals?” 

“God can do everything,” she replied. 

“Well, all I’ve got to say is He must 
have had fun thinking up the different 
kinds.” Then out went the light, and 
three children dropped off to sleep almost 
as quick as a wink. 



CHAPTER XIII 


THANKSGIVING 

“TTERE comes the taxi to go to the 
JL JL train. It’s time to go to Baydo’s. 
Come on, Henny, come on, Penny,” called 
out David. 

It was Thanksgiving Eve, and their 
bags and suit-cases were all packed and 
waiting in the hall. Hats, coats and 
gloves were put on, Father and David 
carried out the bags, Mother took hold of 
the twins’ hands and they all flocked down 
the steps to the cab. At the station were 
uncles and aunts, and on the train were 
another uncle and aunt with William, 
his two little brothers and his big sister 
with her husband and a darling new baby 
which Henny and Penny had never seen. 
Everybody laughed and talked all at once 

128 


THANKSGIVING 


129 


and said “How have you been?” and 
“Isn’t this fun?” The twins sat opposite 
the new baby staring at it and the baby 
stared back, trying to chew on its cap 
strings. “Can’t the baby talk?” asked 
Henny. 

“No, she isn’t old enough to talk yet,” 
said its mother. 

“Can it walk?” Penny wanted to 
know. 

“No, she can’t walk either. I remem- 
ber when your mother brought you two on 
the train the first time. You were just 
the size of this baby. Doesn’t that seem 
funny?” Henny and Penny thought it 
was very strange that they could ever 
have been as little as that. They found 
that by clapping their hands and mak- 
ing funny noises they could get the baby 
to smile, and even to laugh out loud, so 
they entertained it until their elders be- 
gan to stand up and get out the bags. 
The train stopped and they all piled out 


130 


HENNY AND PENNY 


on the platform and into the two cars that 
were waiting. It was dark by this time, 
although it was only five o’clock, and when 
they drove up to Baydo’s the house was 
lighted up from top to bottom. At the 
door were Nayno and Dootsie and Uncle 
Ed to welcome them. Inside was a crack- 
ling fire in the fire-place, and the most 
wonderful smell of roast pig coming up 
from the kitchen. 

Such fun it was, all piling in at once. 

The minute William and David and 
the twins and the other two boys, John 
and James, got their hats and coats off, 
they started for the kitchen stairs. Down 
they went, pell-mell, through the dark 
laundry into the bright kitchen where 
some of their old friends were delighted to 
see them. “Please show us the pig, Rosy, 
will you fc ?” they asked, and they gathered 
around the oven door just as they did 
every year. Rose opened the door, drew 
out the pan and there sat a whole little 


THANKSGIVING 


131 

pig! He was brown instead of white, 
and his ears and tail were tied up in white 
muslin so they wouldn’t cook too quick 
and fall off. After he was shoved back in 
the oven and the door shut, Rose gave 
them each a nut-cake with raisins on top, 
because she said it would be a long time 
before supper. William told about the 
things that happened in his school, and 
David told about what they did in his 
school, especially the tricks the boys 
played on the teacher. John and James 
and the twins all had something to tell 
Rosy, whom they dearly loved, and there 
was lots of fun going on down in that big 
warm nice-smelling kitchen. 

After a while they went upstairs and 
found mother sitting on the sofa in front 
of the fire, reading a book. They told her 
all about the pig, and then it seemed such 
a long time before supper would be ready, 
that they begged her to tell a story. 

Some of the children sat on the floor at 


132 


HENNY AND PENNY 


her feet, and some snuggled into the cush- 
ions on the sofa. “I always tell the 
stories,” said Mother. “This time you 
tell me one. David must begin, and 
then each of you tell a part of it. Now, 
David, we’re ready. What is it going 
to be about?” 

David thought for a minute. Then 
he began — “Once there was a little pig 
called Tommy Pork. He lived with his 
wife in a nice red pig-pen. Inside his 
house there was a bed, a stove and two 
chairs. His wife was a very good cook 
and used to make him nice rotten-apple 
pies and extra fine swill soup,” All the 
children laughed at this, and David went 
on — “Tommy had a nice little store. He 
sold apples and swill for ten cents a pail- 
ful, and when the pigs were poor and 
could not pay so much he sold them apples 
and potatoes with worm holes in. The 
holes usually had live worms in them, but 
the pigs did not mind. They liked that 


THANKSGIVING 


133 


wormy taste. They said they wouldn’t 
eat whole apples if they could, because 
the flavor wasn’t so good ! Now it’s your 
turn, Janie.” So Janie went on, 
“Tommy Pork’s store was very neat. He 
used to get a woman pig he knew to come 
in and wash the floor of his store every 
morning before breakfast. The woman 
pig’s name was Mrs. T. W. Pigwee. Mrs. 
Pork was Tommy’s wife. She was very 
neat and systematic, too. She used to 
get up every morning at six o’clock and 
cook Tommy’s breakfast. They ate in 
the kitchen. After breakfast she would 
wash the dishes and clean the nickel on her 
stove. Her stove was twelve years old, 
but it looked as new as if she had just 
bought it. Then she would get dinner, 
and after dinner she scrubbed the floor 
with a brush. By that time Mrs. T. W. 
Pigwee or somebody else would stop in to 
see her, and when they were gone, she had 
to cook the supper. She was as busy as a 


134 


HENNY AND PENNY 


bee from morning until night. Now, 
William, it’s your turn.” 

“Well, one day,” said William, 
“Tommy Pork was alone in the store 
when two ugly looking men pigs came in. 
They carried big sticks and had pistols in 
their belts. 

“Give me the money out of the cash 
drawer,” one of them said. 

“I won’t,” Tommy said. Then one of 
the pigs held a pistol to his nose, and 
Tommy let out such a squeal that the 
other pig knocked him over the head with 
his club, and threw him behind the coun- 
ter. Then they took down two new axes 
from the wall and chopped open the cash 
register and emptied all the money out of 
it. Then they smashed the glass showcase 
and filled their pockets with cigars, and 
off they ran, leaving Tommy unconscious 
behind the counter.” 

“Now let me tell,” cried Penny, very 
much excited. “Tommy woke up and he 


THANKSGIVING 


135 


went home and he was mad because Mrs. 
Pig didn’t hear him squeal, and he opened 
the door and there was Mrs. Pig in the 
kitchen with ten baby pigs. Mrs. Pig 
said, ‘I thought I’d susprise you, Tommy.’ 
(Penny always said “susprise” for “sur- 
prise.” “Tommy said he’d had two sus- 
prises in one day, and that was enough. 
Then he fell down in a faint.” 

“It’s my turn. It’s my turn,” said 
Henny, clapping her hands and jumping 
up and down on her knees on the sofa. 
“Mrs. Pig threw water on Tommy to make 
him better and then she put him to bed and 
gave him nice hot chicken broth, and then 
she tied a ribbon around every little pig’s 
neck and she put them all in a bastik” 
(she meant a basket) “and carried them 
in and put them on Tommy’s bed and he 
named every one and they made a circus 
tent on the bed and played all night.” 

As Henny finished, they heard the 
sound of a car and rushed to the door, for 


136 HENNY AND PENNY 


that was Baydo who had arrived from 
New York on the evening train. In the 
door he came, big and handsome and smil- 
ing, and everybody piled on top of him, 
and ever so many voices welcomed him at 
once and they took his bag and his news- 
papers and his boxes of candy away from 
him and escorted him to the back of the 
hall to take off his things. Then all the 
family, very hungry, gathered around the 
fire-place and Baydo stood in front of it 
and talked. The children put *as many 
arms around him as there was room for, 
and pretty soon the dining-room door 
opened and they all poured through it; 
there they saw a long table, the whole 
length of the room, with a small table at 
one side for the younger children. On the 
long table was set out an old-fashioned 
supper, just like the one that used to be 
at Mother’s grandfather’s long ago, when 
she was a little girl. There was a high 
silver coffee urn at Nayno’s end, pitchers 


THANKSGIVING 


137 


of cider, plates of rusk and bread, biscuits 
and cake of different kinds; dishes of pre- 
serves, jelly, honey, cheese and canned 
peaches and cherries. When the big peo- 
ple and the little people had hunted 
around and found the right chairs and 
were seated, in came two maids carrying 
a huge silver tray by its handles ! There 
was the little pig sitting on it with a 
bright red apple in his mouth. Baydo 
stood up to carve him properly and when 
all the plates were filled with delicious 
tender slices of young pig with stuffing, 
mashed potatoes, turnips and apple sauce, 
there wasn’t such a lot of Mr. Pig left on 
the platter, although there was enough for 
everybody who wanted it to have a sec- 
ond helping. 

It was such a happy party. There were 
old family jokes that were told over and 
laughed at every year, and most of the 
company had funny stories and interest- 
ing things to tell. The grown-ups kept 


138 HENNY AND PENNY 

looking around at the candle-lighted table 
where the children sat with rosy cheeks 
and bright eyes, enjoying it all just as 
much as the rest. 

It was fun going to bed with cousins to 
play with, lights in every room and all 
kinds of extra cots and cribs to sleep on, 
and the next morning when they woke up 
it was Thanksgiving. There was snow 
on the ground, so after a breakfast of sau- 
sage, eggs, creamed potatoes and buck- 
wheat cakes with maple syrup, the whole 
party went out to slide down hill on the 
sleds and old toboggan out of the barn. 
Then Baydo came and asked who wanted 
to go for a walk, and all the elders went 
with him around through the orchards and 
over the hills while the children kept on 
sliding. 

For Thanksgiving dinner there were 
two big turkeys out of Nayno’s flock, and 
three kinds of pie — pumpkin, mince and 
apple — for dessert, and ice-cream espe- 


THANKSGIVING 


139 


dally for the children. That evening 
there were games, and William and David 
had a wrestling match in the back of the 
hall. They were afraid to make a noise 
lest their elders should stop them, so all 
you could hear was the scuffling and their 
hard breathing as they threw each other 
down and rolled upon the floor. 

Most of the company left on Friday, 
but some, including the twins, stayed un- 
til Sunday and had all that time to slide 
down hill and play and enjoy the nicest 
of all places to spend the Thanksgiving 
Holidays — the real country. 




CHAPTER XIV 


SNOW 

O NE morning Mother came into the 
nursery to shut the windows and 
turn on the heat. She said “Good news, 
children,” and they knew what that meant. 
That meant there was snow outside, be- 
cause they always said “Good news” when 
the snow came. Up they jumped so 
pleased and happy, and looked out on a 
different world. Instead of being a 
colored world, it was all white. The side- 
walk was gone, the fence and bushes 
were thick and woolly, the pine branches > 
hung down soft and white, with a green 

140 


SNOW 


141 


lining, and the air was full of whirling, 
swirling, dancing snowflakes. “Oh, I 
love it,” said David, “the snowflakes look 
so happy flying like that.” 

“I’d like to be a snowflake,” said 
Henny. “I’d come in the window and 
kiss Mother.” 

“Then you’d melt. If a snowflake gets 
on anything warm it melts and turns into 
a drop of water,” said David. 

“Does it, Mother?” asked Henny. 

“Give me a snowflake, Mother, and let 
me see,” said Penny. So Mother, who 
was brushing the snow off the window sill 
with a whisk broom before she could shut 
the window, said, “Hold out your hands,” 
and she put a snowflake on each warm 
little palm, and those flakes turned into 
water before their very eyes ! 

“How can I go to school?” asked 
David. 

“You can’t,” said Mother, “I wouldn’t 
have you go out in this storm. I don’t be- 


142 


HENNY AND PENNY 


lieve many children will go to-day.” Of 
course that pleased David very much and 
he liked the snowstorm better than ever. 
After breakfast they had the grandest time 
in the Playroom all morning. Outside the 
wind blew and the snow flew, making a 
lovely white light in the room where it was 
warm and cosy. The clock ticked in such 
a home-like way and Mother sat by the 
window sewing, and the children played 
circus. They all loved it and felt so con- 
tented and happy. They opened the 
doors of the old red Play-closet, took out 
the dolls and made them sit in rows on 
one side of the room for the audience. 
Then they fished out the animals. There 
were all kinds — a couple of elephants, a 
camel, a giraffe, two or three little mon- 
keys, a panther with green eyes, a wolf, a 
fox, a pig and many others. They built 
cages for them with blocks and made the 
dolls walk by to look at them. “Wouldn’t 


SNOW 


143 


it be funny / 5 said Penny, “if ladies 
weared their pocket-books on their toes ? 55 

David had a box with two or three 
jointed wooden clowns and donkeys and 
step-ladders in it, and he made them per- 
form and cut up such antics that the audi- 
ence shouted with laughter (it was really 
Henny and Penny laughing, but they 
played it was the audience) . By and by 
David and the twins did some acting 
themselves, and before anyone realized 
what time it was, they heard Father 
stamping the snow off outside the front 
door and that meant he had come home for 
lunch, so they flew down the stairs to let 
him in and gave him some big hugs and his 
face felt so nice and cold. 

“Father, may we go out after dinner ? 55 
they asked, and Father said it was not 
snowing hard now and he thought it would 
be all right if Mother wrapped them up 
well. 


144 


HENNY AND PENNY 


“Father,” said David, “I believe this 
tooth is coming out. It is so loose on its 
hinges.” 

“It is,” replied Father. “Will you let 
me tie a thread around it and pull it out?” 

“Yes, you may do it right this minute.” 
David felt very brave, and Father tied 
the thread around the little loose tooth 
and Henny and Penny stood close by, 
looking on. Father gave a quick jerk, 
and out it came and never hurt a bit. 
“There,” said Father, “look at the fish I 
caught.” 

“I wish my teef would come out,” 
sighed Penny. 

Father turned Davy around to the light. 
“Let me see where it came from, Davy. 
Why, there’s another one growing in its 
place. This new tooth must have been 
pushing the old one out.” 

“I am going to save this tooth for 
Nayno. Will you put it away for me, 
Mother?” David asked, handing it to her. 


SNOW 


H5 


“Yes, I will. Nayno will be so pleased. 
Come to lunch now, boys and girls,” said 
Mother. 

Afterward she bundled them up in leg- 
gings, arctics, coats, caps and mittens, and 
out they went into the soft fluffy snow. It 
was so high they had to climb over it to get 
to the barn where their shovels and sleds 
were. John Pepper came over and he and 
David built a fort to get behind when 
they had a snow-ball fight with the boys 
on the street. Henny and Penny made a 
great snow-ball which got bigger and big- 
ger as they rolled it around until they 
couldn’t budge it any more. Then John 
and David rolled it until they couldn’t 
move it, and you can imagine how enorm- 
ous it was by that time. Then Mother 
called out of the window that they had 
been out long enough, and to bring John 
in and they could have a tea party. 

They found the Playroom table set with 
tea things and candles burning. There 


146 HENNY AND PENNY 

was nice hot cambric tea and toasted bread 
sandwiches with strawberry preserves in 
between. Oh, but they tasted good. 
David spilled some tea on his legs and 
Mother wondered if he would catch cold 
from it. He said, “No, I won’t, Mother. 
It’s just like a bath,” but she had him dry 
his stockings near the register just the 
same. 

By night the snow had turned into a 
cold rain. When they went to bed David 
took one of the flowers off the prayer table 
and slipped it out of the window. “I am 
putting it out for the fairy that is out there 
in the dark,” he said. 

In the night it stopped raining and a 
cold wind blew. You never saw anything 
more beautiful than the trees the next 
morning. They were ice trees. Their 
branches tossed and crackled stiffly in the 
wind, and the sun rose and turned them 
into dazzling silver. It was Fairyland 
out of doors. And it was Saturday, too ! 


SNOW 


H7 


“Children, our icicle has come back. 
Come and see , 55 said Mother. There it 
was in the very same place as last year, 
turning and twisting, while all the other 
icicles hanging from the roof were stiff 
and still. David remembered it had been 
there last winter. Mother showed him 
how it was formed on a hair that had got 
caught on the roof some way and that is 
why it was loose, and twirled around in- 
stead of being immovable like the rest. 
“Isn’t it strange that a hair could have 
stayed there all that time. It must have 
been a strong one , 55 said Mother, and all 
their life long they remembered it and 
when they were grown up they would say 
“Do you remember our icicle ? 55 when they 
would see a row of icicles hanging from 
some roof. 

After breakfast they went out to play. 
There was a lovely crust on the snow and 
they slid around on it. John and Jamie 
came over and they fastened four sleds 


148 HENNY AND PENNY 

together, making a train. The train ran 
from Lima Bean Town, where the 
Lima beans had been last summer, to Rose 
Village, where the rose bushes were, stop- 
ping at Violet Place and Bachelor Button 
Station on the way. Then they took the 
huge snow-ball for a foundation and built 
a snow man on top of it. He was big and 
tall and had coals for eyes, a stick for a 
pipe and an old hat of Father’s on his head 
and a muffler around his neck. The twins 
were almost afraid of him — he looked so 
fierce and real. 

In the afternoon they made a snow hut 
and scooped out the inside so that it was 
big enough to crawl into, one at a time, 
if you kept your head down low. That 
night they were so tired with all that hard 
work that they never even asked for a 
story, but went to sleep the minute 
Mother put out the light. 


CHAPTER XV 


CHRISTMAS SHOPPING 

D AVID was on his knees in front of 
Henny, which made him just as 
tall as she was when she was standing on 
the floor. “Love Brother, Henny,” he 
said. “Put your arms around his neck 
and love Brother sweetly.” Henny threw 
her arms around him and squeezed him 
much too hard. “Now come and sit on 
my lap and I’ll tell you about Christmas.” 
It was Sunday afternoon and David had 
been hearing all about Christmas in 
church. He led Henny to a little rock- 
ing-chair that had been Mother’s when she 
was as small as Henny, and lifted her up 
on his lap. “I call Christmas the Glad 
Day because God was born on Christmas 
Day. Isn’t that a good name for it, 
149 


150 


HENNY AND PENNY 


Henny — the Glad Day?” Henny, who 
didn’t know a thing about it, clapped 
her hands. “Ye-e-e-es. Tell about it, 
Davy!” 

“Well, God lived way up in Heaven 
and people didn’t know what He was like, 
so He came down to earth so that every- 
body could talk to Him and know Him. 
He didn’t have a nice house with a nice 
bed to sleep in like you have, Henny. He 
was born in a barn and slept in a manger on 
the hay so that little poor children 
wouldn’t be afraid to come near Him like 
they would if He had been born in a king’s 
palace and had rich clothes and lots of 
servants to wait on Him. He was King 
of the whole world, so He could have 
come down and lived in the biggest finest 
house there was, but He didn’t want any- 
body to be afraid of Him or think He was 
better off than they were. His mother 
and His foster-father were on their way 


CHRISTMAS SHOPPING 151 

to Jerusalem to pay taxes and they stopped 
to spend the night in Bethlehem. There 
wasn’t any room for them to stay in the 
hotel, so the landlord told them to go out 
in the stable, and they did. In the night 
Jesus Christ was born. There was an ox 
in the stable, Henny, and he said ‘Moo,’ 
and there was an ass and he said ‘He-haw, 
he-haw,’ and all the animals were glad. 
By and by some shepherds that heard the 
angels singing out in the fields came and 
worshipped Him, and that was the first 
Christmas Day. Christmas is our Lord’s 
Birthday. Jesus was the first Christmas 
Present and that’s why we give presents 
now, Henny. Will you remember that 1 ?” 

“Yes,” Henny began to sing in a loud 
voice without much tune — “Jesus was the 
first Christmas Present and that’s why I’m 
going to hang up my stocking and find a 
ball and a dolly in it and we’re going to 
have a tree and everything!” Penny 


152 


HENNY AND PENNY 


came running in to hear what all the noise 
was about, and David put his arm around 
her, too. 

“To-morrow after school/’ he said, 
‘Tm going to take you two down town all 
alone to buy Christmas presents, but you 
mustn’t tell what we get and we’ll hide 
the things away until Christmas morning. 
We’ll hide them in the closet under the 
stairs. Won’t that be fun?” 

The next day, after dinner, three happy 
children started out, each with a dollar, to 
buy Christmas presents. Henny’s dollar 
and Penny’s dollar were in little blue 
pocket-books that hung on chains, but 
David’s was in a purse in his coat pocket. 
They walked hand in hand down the 
snowy street through crowds of smiling 
people whose arms were full of packages. 
They were smiling because they had been 
buying things to make other people happy. 
When the children reached the red outside 
of the Ten Cent Store they turned in, and 


CHRISTMAS SHOPPING 


153 


David pushed the big door open and held 
it for his sisters to go through. They were 
quite bewildered at being squeezed in be- 
tween so many tall persons whose faces 
were far above them, and by the smell of 
the candy, the playing of a piano some- 
where in the distance, the ringing of the 
cash register bells, and the glimpses of 
glittering shiny things that they caught 
here and there. David unbuttoned the 
twins’ coats so they would not catch cold 
when they went out, and led them care- 
fully through the crowd. “Let’s buy 
Mother’s present first,” he said. They 
were looking through the glass counter at 
t-rays and trays of pins and rings and 
chains all sparkling in the electric light. 

“I’m going to buy Mother that chain 
and locket with the blue stones in it,” 
David decided, pointing to it. “Why 
don’t you give her that pin with a blue 
stone to wear with it, Henny, and Penny 
can get the cuff links.” 


*54 


HENNY AND PENNY 


“No, I’m going to give her a wash- 
cloth,” said practical Penny, so David and 
Henny bought the chain and locket and 
the pin, while Penny picked out a pretty 
washcloth with a blue edge. Then they 
bought for Father a pipe and a screw- 
driver that he had been wishing for, and 
a paper-weight made of glass and filled 
with water. If you turned it upside down 
something that looked like fine white snow 
fell on a little church inside. 

After they had purchased things for 
Nora and Delia, too, David said, “Now 
we’ll get each other’s presents. Henny 
must stand here by the dishes and we’ll go 
over to the toy counter, Penny, and buy 
her things, then you can stand here and 
Henny and I will buy yours.” 

“Yes, and then you’ll have to stand here 
and we’ll buy yours, Davy,” cried both 
twins at once, perfectly delighted with 
the idea of shopping by themselves. 
“Now Henny, don’t go away from this 


CHRISTMAS SHOPPING 


155 


counter where the dishes are, and no fair 
looking at what we get. You won’t, will 
you?” 

Henny shook her head solemnly and 
turned her attention to the cups and sau- 
cers in front of her, while David and 
Penny pushed their way to the toys. 
David looked over the counter. “I’m go- 
ing to buy her a ball,” he said, “she wants 
that, and I think it’s the nicest present 
anybody could have.” He picked up a 
base-ball. “Isn’t that a dandy?” He 
dropped it back in the box and turned to 
some others. “I guess girls like soft balls 
better, though. I’ll get her this red, white 
and blue one that bounces.” He paid the 
smiling clerk ten cents and when she 
leaned over and asked Penny, “What do 
you want, little girl?” Penny pointed 
one small finger at a black horse harnessed 
to a red wagon. Then she put the same 
small finger and her thumb into the blue 
pocket-book for the ten-cent piece David 


156 HENNY AND PENNY 

told her to give the clerk, and somehow 
or other the pocket-book turned upside 
down and all the money fell out and rolled 
about under people’s feet. David scram- 
bled around and picked up the shiny dimes 
putting them back, all except the one that 
was to pay for the horse and wagon, and 
kissed his sister and said, “Now, it’s all 
right,” and the clerk handed down the big 
package, nicely tied up with paper and 
string, and back they went to the place 
where Henny was standing with her back 
turned faithfully toward them. 

“Now, Penny, you stand here just like 
Henny did, and hold this package for 
Brother, too, will you 4 ?” 

So Penny stood where she was told, with 
her two little arms full of parcels, and 
people who walked by said, “Look at that 
cunning child,” and one said, “Are you 
playing Santa Claus, little girl*?” 

At the toy counter David picked out a 
doll’s bed for Penny, and Henny bought 


CHRISTMAS SHOPPING 


157 


a horse and wagon exactly like the one 
Penny had for her. 

Then it was David's turn to stand by 
the dishes and wait. Henny and Penny 
were so little that they couldn’t see what 
was on the counter although they stood 
on tiptoe and tried to look over the edge. 
Pretty soon the clerk, who was a very 
kind girl, saw them and asked “Do you 
want to buy something, kiddies?” They 
said, “Yes, please,” and she lifted them 
up, one at a time, so they could see to pick 
out David’s presents. Penny bought him 
the base-ball and Henny a policeman’s 
whistle. The kind clerk put the ball and 
the whistle in their pockets for them so 
that when they went back to David he 
couldn’t see a thing! 

“We’ve got your presents, Davy,” cried 
Penny, “and they’re in our pottets so you 
can’t see ’em.” 

“Guess what they are,” said Henny. 

“No,” Davy answered, “I won’t guess, 


158 HENNY AND PENNY 


because I might guess right and then it 
wouldn’t be a surprise. Now let me but- 
ton your coats and we’ll take our things 
•home and hide them away.” 

They walked slowly along the street, 
stopping and looking in every shop win- 
dow, and I couldn’t begin to tell you all 
the things they saw — sleds and blocks, 
dolls and a train running round on a track 
with a real little head-light on the engine, 
and a big doll’s house with the grown-up 
dolls sitting at the table downstairs and 
a cook in the kitchen and some baby dolls 
in bed upstairs. Further along the street 
they looked at books and ladies’ dresses; 
hats, silver, candy, a Christmas Tree, tur- 
keys and chickens without any feathers, 
hanging by their feet, and oranges and 
cranberries. Finally they actually saw 
Santa Claus walking up and down in a 
store ! David wanted to go in and speak 
to him, but the twins were afraid, so they 
went on home, and when they got in the 


CHRISTMAS SHOPPING 


159 


house they hid their packages in the closet 
under the stairs where it was dark and no 
one could see them until Christmas. 



CHAPTER XVI 


CHRISTMAS 

A FTER a long, long time it was 
Christmas Eve. All day the door 
bell rang and packages arrived. Mother 
and David went out with his sled and took 
presents to some people who lived down 
near the factory and wished them a Merry 
Christmas and many of them. Old Sally 
Ann, who was as black as she could be and 
so old her hair was quite grey, brought the 
children each a little pie. She sat on a 
kitchen chair with the young ones gathered 
around her and a market basket on her lap. 
She said in her quavering voice, “Now 
children, I’ve brought something in this 
basket for each one of you. We had lots 
of nice Baldwin apples on the old tree in 
our yard, and Lewis, my husband, he 

160 








CHRISTMAS 


163 


picked those apples and put them in bar- 
rels in the cellar, and I said, ‘Now when 
Christmas comes, David and Henny and 
Penny must each have a little apple pie’ so 
yesterday I went down cellar and I 
brought up a pan full of the best apples. 
I peeled them and made a little pie for 
David, a little pie for Henny and one for 
Penny.” 

As she spoke she took off a paper and a 
clean white napkin, and they saw the 
three little pies in a row, each one in a 
small pie tin. She gave one to David 
and one to Henny and one to Penny. 

“Oh, thank you, Sally Ann,” they said, 
and each one felt so proud to own a whole 
pie instead of just having a piece cut out 
of a big one. Mother came in and looked 
at them. “No one can make pie crust like 
yours, Sally Ann,” she said. “They look 
perfectly delicious. Now let me have 
your basket a minute. I want to put some 
Christmas things in it.” So she filled it 


164 HENNY AND PENNY 

up full and Sally Ann went away with the 
children calling “Merry Christmas” after 
her. 

In the afternoon the tree came and 
Mother brought down the box of orna- 
ments, and then weren’t they busy trim- 
ming it. Jamie, from next door, and 
John Pepper came in to help, and they 
got a step-ladder and put a bright star on 
the very tip-top of the tree, colored balls 
and apples, icicles and a peacock with real 
feathers in its tail, and yards and yards of 
sparkling tinsel. There was a little man- 
ger underneath with the Holy Family and 
an ox, an ass and a sheep in it. Mother 
hung wreaths in the windows, tied with 
bright red ribbon, and trimmed the house 
with holly, making it look so dressed up 
and gay and different. Then supper was 
ready. There were red candles and poin- 
settias on the table, and after supper they 
hung up their stockings in front of the fire- 
place and finally they went to bed. 


CHRISTMAS 


165 


When they were tucked in, Mother went 
to the book-shelf and got “The Night be- 
fore Christmas” and read it to them. 
What thrills they had when she read : 

“When what to my wondering eyes should 
appear, 

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny 
reindeer”; 

They could almost see him on the roof 
with the eight tiny reindeer pawing the 
snow. 

“With a little old driver; so lively and 
quick, 

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.” 

Henny and Penny wondered if they 
could stay awake and see him come. 

“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now 
Prancer! and Vixen! 

On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and 
Blitzen. 

To the top of the porch, to the top of the 
wall! 


i66 


HENNY AND PENNY 


Now, dash away, dash away, dash away 
all!” 

It made you sit right up in bed to hear 
Mother read that, and then came : 

“He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave 
a whistle, 

And away they all flew like the down on 
a thistle. 

But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out 
of sight, 

Happy Christmas to all and to all a Good 
Night.” 

Some last kisses, and out went the light, 
leaving three happy children to dream 
about Santa Claus. 

It was pitch dark when David woke up 
the next morning, but he remembered in- 
stantly what day it was and began shout- 
ing “Merry Christmas.” The twins woke 
up and they started shouting “Merry 
Christmas” and in a few minutes Mother 
and Father came in saying “Merry Christ- 


CHRISTMAS 


167 

mas.” Down the stairs they all went, in 
bathgowns and slippers. Father turned 
on the library light and, sure enough, there 
were the stockings filled to the brim, and 
ever so many packages underneath. 

“Father, please lift me up to get my own 
stocking,” said David; so he lifted them 
each up in turn, and made a nice blazing 
fire in the fire-place, and then wasn’t it fun 
sitting on the floor, pulling out those 
lumpy things and feeling further and 
further down in the stocking until they 
got to the very toes ! All kinds of things 
came out — toy wrist-watches, mouth or- 
gans, horns, dolls, animals and mice that 
would run around on the floor when you 
wound them up; apples, oranges and 
candy canes, and way down in the toes 
there were marbles. 

When the stockings lay limp and empty 
on the floor, they turned to the boxes and 
Henny and Penny each found a doll’s bu- 
reau and bed; some chairs and a new doll 


i68 


HENNY AND PENN Y 


with a trunkful of clothes — a tray in the 
trunk with fans, gloves, handkerchiefs, 
an extra hat and everything. 

David had a tool-box, a pair of new 
roller skates and a whole herd of little 
cows with real skin on them, dark red cows 
like Baydo’s live ones, just what he was 
wishing for. David whispered to the 
twins, “Let’s go and get our presents that 
we bought, now!” so they rushed off to the 
closet under the stairs and brought out 
their packages, and wasri t Mother pleased 
with the locket and chain and pin with the 
blue stones in them and the washcloth with 
the blue edge ! “See, they all match,” she 
said, and Father said, “Blue is your color, 
too,” and, “Well, well, how did you chil- 
dren know I wanted a pipe and a screw- 
driver and how nice this paper-weight 
will be on my desk on a hot summer’s day. 
I will turn it over and see the snow falling 
and it will cool me off when the ther- 
mometer is one hundred in the shade.” 


CHRISTMAS 


169 


“Now see what I’ve got for you, Henny,” 
said David, and Henny opened the paper 
with the red, white and blue ball in it 
and hugged David for it. Then she 
opened the package of the horse harnessed 
to a red wagon and hugged Penny for that, 
and Penny opened the doll’s bed and horse 
and wagon, and David the base-ball and 
the policeman’s whistle, and there were 
more hugs and kisses. Then Mother 
and Father went upstairs and dressed and 
started off to church, while the children 
gathered their neV toys together, took 
them up to the nursery, and got dressed 
for breakfast. 

After breakfast they went to church 
with Baydo and Nayno, who arrived from 
the country just in time. The church 
smelled perfectly delicious, like pine trees, 
and they saw the manger filled with straw 
and in it were the Holy Family and the 
shepherds and animals and two angels, 
and a star overhead. Far up in the chan- 


HENNY AND PENNY 


170 

cel the altar with its twinkling lights 
looked as if it stood out in the woods — 
there were so many trees around it. 

The children loved the Christmas carols, 
and even Henny and Penny could sing 
one which they had learned by heart. It 
was — 

“Away in a manger, 

No crib for a bed, 

The little Lord Jesus 

Laid down His sweet head. 

The stars in the sky 

Looked down where He lay, 

The little Lord Jesus, 

Asleep on the hay. 

“The cattle are lowing, 

The dear baby sleeps, 

O’er little Lord Jesus 
Sweet Mary watch keeps. 

Thee, dearest Lord Jesus, 

We love and we greet; 

We worship Thy Godhead, 

We kneel at Thy feet.” 


CHRISTMAS 


171 


When they came out of church it 
was snowing, so they hurried home and 
stamped and brus’he'd the snow off before 
they went into the house. Then Baydo 
and Nayno had to go up to the nursery 
to see the presents and to get their own 
which the children had tied up for them 
with silver string. 

For dinner there was turkey and plum 
pudding with a piece of holly stuck in the 
top, and after dinner the tree. Every 
year ten children came from the Children’s 
Home to help enjoy the tree, and when 
they arrived in Baydo’s car which he had 
sent for them, David and Henny and 
Penny ran out to meet them, and helped 
them take off their coats and hats. At 
first the little visitors were rather silent 
and said “Yes, ma’am,” and “No ma’am,” 
and not much else, but when they were all 
seated around the tree and Father found 
presents for every one piled up under it, 
and David and the twins ran back and 


172 


HENNY AND PENNY 


forth asking their names and giving them 
the things Santa Claus had brought for 
them, they soon began to act natural and 
blew their horns and played on their 
mouth organs just like any one else. 
Then David and Henny and Penny 
helped to pass the sandwiches and ice- 
cream and cakes and candy and Father 
played some lively tunes on the victrola 
and it was really getting quite noisy when 
the time came for them to go home. 

Not long after that three tired but 
happy children were put to bed. “The 
tree was the nicest part of all, Mother,” 
they said. “Do you know why that is?” 
asked Mother. “It is because you were 
doing something to make some one else 
happy. You must always remember to 
try to make other people just as happy 
as you possibly can,” and they said, “We 
will, Mother. Goodnight.” 
























































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